Minimum entropy deconvolution: a novel processing technique for refraction seismology

Most deconvolution techniques developed for reflection seismology suffer from the need to make assumptions about the disturbing function and the reflection series. In refraction seismology such assumptions are generally not valid. The Minimum Entropy Deconvolution (MED) technique of Wiggins (1978) requires no a priori knowledge of the phase characteristics of the disturbing function, nor does it assume the impulse response of the Earth's transmission path to be a white noise series. As such, it may be applied to short windows of refraction data containing only a few arrivals. The process seeks to simplify the representation of the input data, yielding an output of a small number of spikes. In this way the picking of arrivals on a refraction record is made much easier. By applying the technique to each trace independently, true arrivals may be distinguished from spurious spikes by correlation from one trace to the next.