Structure-enhancing filtering

In this chapter, we go one-step further from last chapter, i.e., from structure preservation to structure enhancement. The flow-like structures are commonly observed in seismic images. These structures usually are related to subsurface structures, such as channel, curved stratum. So, enhancing these structures and making it more prominent may help the interpreter to pick important information. To enhance the local structure while suppressing noise, the noise suppressing filter must be structure-aware. Local orientation and its coherence are fundamental to the formation of structures, so it should be analyzed and incorporated into the filter. Furthermore, geometry of the image surface can also be utilized. To promote the effect of structure enhancement, the structure-aware filters are usually iterated several times.