Enhancement of first arrivals using the τ-p transform on energy-ratio seismic shot records

We propose a robust method of first-break picking for data sets with high noise levels through the use of the τ-p transform on energy-ratio seismic records. Using synthetic shot records with various noise levels, we showed that the performance of this proposed method enhances first arrivals, which helps in picking them. This was particularly true when the noise level was high where picking on raw amplitudes completely fails. We also applied the method on two published real shot records, for which first-break picking was difficult. We showed that for one of the shot records our method succeeds in determining first breaks that are consistent with manual picks and better than those obtained from a conventional method. The method can be used to guide better the subsequent careful picking of first arrivals and requires one forward and one inverse τ-p transform operations. In contrast to methods based on trace-by-trace picking that often fail to pick some traces, the proposed method automatically interpolates missing picks.