Seismic data compression for interpretation systems
A. Hillery · World Oil · 1997
The biggest problem with data compression methods is that they do not allow random access to arbitrary positions within the compressed data. All methods have trade-offs. Shell E and P Technology Co. engineers targeted random access and speed when designing their GeoCompression Software. They wanted a user to be able to freely move about the 3-D volume of data while interpreting that data set. Also, decompression had to be done in real time as the application is running, so speed was very important. Efficiencies of encoding and a selected compression ratio of 8:1 preserve data quality and make GeoCompression an excellent choice for a Seismic Interpretation System. GeoCompression`s driver allows the software to be loaded via any medium--disk, CD-rom, tape, even low bandwidth network lines--right along with the data. Since there are no requirements for specialized compression hardware, universal data utility is obtained.