Q factor estimation from the amplitude spectrum of the time-frequency transform of stacked reflection seismic data

Attenuation is one factor that degrades the quality of reflection seismic subsurface imaging. It causes a progressive decrease in the seismic pulse energy and is also responsible for limiting seismic resolution. Currently, many methods exist for inverse Q filtering, which can be used to correct these effects to some extent; however, but all of these methods require the value of the Q factor to be known, and this information is rarely available. In this paper we present and evaluate three different strategies to derive the Q factor from the time-frequency amplitude spectrum of the seismic trace. They are based in the analyses of the amplitude decay trend curves that can be measured along time, along frequency or along a compound variable obtained from the time-frequency product. Some difficulties are highlighted, such as the impossibility to use short time window intervals that prevents the method from providing a precise map of the Q factor value of the subsurface layers. However, the Q factor estimation made in this way can be used to guide the parameterization of attenuation correction by means of inverse Q filtering applied to a stacked seismic section; this is demonstrated in a real data example.