Method for calculating static corrections for seismic data

DETAILED DESCRIPTION A stacked gather of raw seismic traces are generated from the interaction between a plurality of cooperating seismic sources and receivers that are located at predetermined stations in sequential order.
The raw traces are perturbed by surface-consistent static time shifts.
A process is provided for maximizing the modified stack power which is a measure of inter-trace reflection coherency.
The sources and receivers are modeled as a dynamical system of one-dimensional interacting particles that have coordinates proportional to the static time shifts.
The particles are assigned a fictitious unit mass.
The interaction potential of the system is proportional to the modified stack power of the raw seismic traces.
In the modeled system the coordinates of the particles are iteratively altered in the direction of an applied force that is proportional to the negative gradient of the interaction potential.
The iterations are continued with an appropriate annealing schedule, having preselected constraints in the alteration of the coordinates between adjacent stations, until the system reaches a ground state where the applied forces substantially vanish and the modified stack power becomes maximal.
The coordinate values that exist when the system reaches ground state are taken as final and are applied to the raw traces as static corrections to convert the raw seismic traces into a display of coherent seismic traces.