MESA Training

This series of exercises will introduce you to many of the

options that are available in MESA for the design and QC of
3D surveys. It is a good idea to refer to the MESA users
manual for more details about the features described in these
exercises.

Program Purpose.....................................................2
GMG Database Files................................................2
Steps in Survey Design............................................4
Land 3D Seismic Survey Classifications..................6
Geometry Examples.................................................7
Seismic Data Processing Issues............................13
Information Gathering.............................................16
Equations Used in Survey Design..........................17
Survey Analysis and QC.........................................20
Shooting Techniques Compared............................25
Ex #1: Basic MESA Usage....................................29
Ex #2: Line/Brick Layout Options .........................42
Ex #3: Unit Template Layout..................................51
Ex #4: The Design Guide......................................56
Ex #5: Importing Survey Files...............................63
Ex #6: Marine Design............................................68
Ex #7: Using GMG Image.....................................74
Ex #8: Source and Receiver Editing......................77
Ex #9: Offset and Rectangular Shooting...............82
Ex #10: Automatic Template Centering.................86
Ex #11: Salvo Shooting.........................................91
Ex #12: Label Shooting.........................................93
Ex #13: Multi-Survey Capability.............................97
Ex #14: Using Advisor.........................................103
Ex #15: Attributes and Filtering............................106
Ex #16: Displaying Data......................................116
Ex #17 Review of Recent Features....................123

Program Purpose
MESA provides a great deal of flexibility in 3D survey design and analysis, whether the survey is
a land, transitional area, ocean bottom cable, or marine design. Imagery, contour information,
and cultural features (provided from .dxf files, for example) can be used as backgrounds to aid in
the design of the survey. In this way, permit and logistical problems can be anticipated at the
planning stage, reducing the time and cost of field acquisition.
Besides flexibility in design methods, MESA provides flexibility in shooting methods and bin
attribute analysis. Additionally, a number of output file formats are supported, including SEGP-1,
UKOOA, and SPS, in addition to shooting scripts for Input/Output and ARAM acquisition systems.
The completion of a survey design in MESA generates a Green Mountain Geophysics GeoScribe
geometry database, thereby completing a major portion of the initial pre-stack processing work
while still in the field. These database files are transportable across various hardware platforms,
making MESA a practical tool for field and office environments.

GMG Files and the Database

The following set of files represents what Green Mountain Geophysics refers to as the MESA or
GeoScribe database. These files are a combination of ASCII and binary files and combine to
hold all of the information needed to define the geometry (and refraction statics) for any 2D or 3D
survey. Not all of these files will be found with every database. The *.bin and *.mid files are
required only for bin attribute displays and can be deleted before archiving the database, if
necessary.

File Extension

Format

Description

*.atr

Binary

Attribute information for receivers

*.ats

Binary

Attribute information for sources

*.bin

Binary

Bin information, sizes

*.bmp

Binary

Picture for open database preview display

*.cf1

ASCII

Configuration file for the receiver spreadsheet

*.cf2

ASCII

Configuration file for the source spreadsheet

*.def

ASCII

Default values for MESA to use with this survey

*.fbt

Binary

FFID info and first break picks

*.hdr

ASCII

Header information for SPS outputs

*.idd

Binary

Image ray attribute information

*.inr

ASCII

Instrument information for receivers

*.ins

ASCII

Instrument information for sources

*.lbs

ASCII

Label shooting information

*.mar

Binary

Marine survey information

*.mas

ASCII

Database parameters and status flags

*.mdd

Binary

Model attribute information

*.mdl

ASCII

Aperture model information

*.mid

Binary

Midpoint information, offsets, azimuths

*.mrl

Binary

Streamer marine receiver locations

*.mut

ASCII

Mute function information

*.ndd

Binary

Normal ray attribute information

*.pat

Binary

Source/receiver template relationships

*.rdd

Binary

Offset ray attribute information

*.rfi

ASCII

Filter settings for receivers

*.rln

ASCII

Line names for receivers

*.seq

ASCII

General shooting sequence description

*.sfi

ASCII

Filter settings for sources

*.sln

ASCII

Line names for sources

*.sor

Binary

Source numbers and coordinates

*.sta

Binary

Receiver numbers and coordinates

*.tpl

Binary

Source to receiver patch relationship

*.unt

ASCII

Configuration of the unit template

*.xcl

ASCII

Exclusion zone type, size, and all coordinates

Other GMG Files used or created in MESA

File Extension

Format

Description

*.cfg

ASCII

Configuration file used to import survey files

*.csi

ASCII

Color scale settings

*.cyr

Binary

GMG contour file

*.lyr

Binary

GMG image file

*.nop

ASCII

MESA midpoint exclusion output file

*.ptn

ASCII

MESA pattern output file

*.scr

either

Input/Output script file

*.sts

ASCII

MESA land statistics/cost output file

*.tdf

ASCII

Trace data format file used to import SEGY files

*.vyr

Binary

GMG vector file

Steps in Survey Design

Step 1: Building an idealized survey

MESA provides several methods for defining a survey.
1. Direct layout and shooting Using the source and receiver layout dialogs, you can create
orthogonal (brick or straight line), zig-zag, slash, button patch, and radial surveys. The
surveys are created by specifying information such as inline and crossline spacings,
bearings, and survey size. Several shooting options are then available to define the sourcereceiver template relationship.
2. Unit Template You can create a unit template, a group of sources which are fired into a
common receiver template, in the Unit Template window in MESA. This unit template is then
repeated throughout the design area to simultaneously define and shoot the survey. The unit
template is good for creating brick, orthogonal, button or swath surveys.
3. Importing ASCII files ASCII files containing coordinates and source or receiver numbers
can be imported directly into MESA. Examples of these files are UKOOA, SEG-P1, and SPS.
If ASCII relational files or ASCII or binary shooting scripts are also available, they can be
imported, as well.

Step 2: Creating a real world survey

Once the initial design parameters have been set for the survey, aerial and satellite imagery,
scanned topographic maps, contour displays, and/or files containing cultural information (.dxf
files, for example) can be used to modify the design to take into account physical and cultural
obstacles.
Exclusion zones which exclude sources, receivers, and/or midpoint information can be defined as
circular, linear, or polygonal zones. These zones can be defined graphically, by manually entering
coordinates, or by importing coordinates from an ASCII file. Once the exclusion zones have been
defined, the survey can be designed around them.
Editing functions allow the user to selectively deactivate sources and receivers as well as relocate
them in groups or individually using the mouse or keyboard. The 'redesign a line' function allows the
source or receiver lines to be re-drawn maintaining the inline group interval and thus preserving the
stack response - extra receivers may then be required to fill the gap. A snap to grid function may
also be used to ensure that source and receiver moves maintain the group interval. Thus, the survey
is as close as possible to the real world conditions before any equipment is deployed, minimizing the
time in the field for equipment and crew.

Step 3: Updating with surveyed coordinates

The theoretical survey design can easily be updated with actual coordinates from the survey crew
on a shot by shot, swath by swath, or daily basis through the ASCII file import option. The new
coordinate information may be provided as absolute values or shifts from the original position.
Analysis of the ongoing acquisition, via the bin attribute displays, allows for the repositioning
and/or addition of sources and receivers in order to compensate for any deficiencies which may
have appeared in the desired fold, offset, or azimuth distributions because of conditions in the
field.

Land 3-D Seismic Survey Classifications

Jim Musser, Director GMG Energy Services
Type
In-Line Swath

Applicable Areas
Open Terrain

Advantages
Narrow azimuth data can be
processed and analyzed like 2-D
seismic

Disadvantages
Poor cross line statics, high
SRC and RCV line density,
very sensitive to obstructions

Orthogonal

All Terrains

Wide azimuth, good for 3-D DMO,

can solve cross line statics,
industry standard, economic
operations

Must use 3-D algorithms,

cannot use simple 2D F-K
algorithms

Brick

Open Terrain

Like orthogonal, plus improves

near offset and overall offset
distributions

Discontinuous source lines

are difficult in jungle and in
some other terrains

Slant

All Terrains

Improves overall offset coverage,

better offsets for AVO

Surveying and line clearing

on source lines are longer
due to diagonal line
orientation

Button Patch

Open Terrains,
Farm Land, Arctic,
Desert

Allows sparser source points,

efficient use of large channel
systems

Complex to plan

Variable Line
Spacing

All Terrains

Modification of orthogonal, brick, or Complex to plan

slant design with similar
advantages to each, plus
guarantees surface consistency

Asymmetric Spread

All Terrains

Modification to orthogonal, brick, or Same as for orthogonal,

slant design with similar
brick, and slant designs
advantages to each, plus longer
offset with less recording
equipment

Random

All Terrains

Surface consistent, minimizes

acquisition footprint

Complex to plan and operate

Geometry Examples
Any of the following geometries can be built in MESA by using the unit template option or by directly
placing the sources and receivers before shooting. For each geometry, there is a view of the Unit
Template window followed by a view of the Design window, as well as the main points for and against
each survey type.

Inline Swath shooting - Marine like

Pros:
Cons:

Simplest geometry for DFSV type recording systems.

Poor azimuth distribution, poor coupling, high fold.

Orthogonal or straight line shooting

Pros:
Cons:

10

Very simple geometry to lay out in the field.

Comparatively expensive and yields largest Xmin. Requires good access for
sources and receivers.

Brick shooting
Pros:
Cons:

Smaller Xmin reasonable azimuth and offset distribution with potential for
statics coupling.
Requires good access for both sources and receivers so not suited to areas with
access problems. Excessive long offsets may result with whole survey, or
replanting of geophones.

Button Patches

11

Pros:
Cons:

Efficient utilization of large channel systems with minimum source access and effort.
Can require large numbers of sources. Requires computerized planning. CMP
fold does not yield same offset/azimuth distributions in adjacent bins.

Zigzag (including mirrored, double, triple and shifted double zigzag)

12

Pros:
Cons:

Smaller Xmin with good offset and azimuth distribution.

Only good in conditions of open access such as deserts.

13

Seismic Data Processing Issues Related to Geometry

Migration
Migration creates some profound requirements on survey design. Diffracted events in the
subsurface impose the requirement to sample more time and wider areas, in order to capture
enough of the diffraction to collapse its energy. This almost always will require the design
geophysicist to record seismic data over an area which is much larger than the actual prospect
area. The calculation of this migration aperture is described in the Equations section.

Refraction Statics
If you are designing a survey in an area where significant weathering and statics problems may
exist, you will want to focus some energy on optimizing your survey to solve these problems.
Several refraction statics algorithms exist. Most of these algorithms are primarily numerical
equation solvers, which are dependent on statistical redundancy for the best solutions. Statics
coupling does not play a large role with most refraction statics algorithms because the statics are
not measured in the midpoint domain, and there is no structural or RNMO term to solve in the
standard equation.
Therefore, anything which improves the quality of the first breaks will contribute to enhanced
refraction statics solutions. A single point dynamite source with no significant receiver field arrays
will produce the best results. Geometries with receiver lines which are not straight produce first
breaks which can be very difficult to pick.
Statistical algorithms will perform best if the statistics provided are consistent and well sampled.
This would require the designer to balance source point fold and receiver point fold. Your final
design should produce source/receiver fold of 6 or more.
Split spread type shooting creates surveys which have reciprocal travel paths. Many types of
algorithms depend on reciprocal paths to build stable solutions. Off-end shooting schemes
should be considered as a last resort.
Shallow refractors will require narrow receiver line spacing or they will not be well sampled.

Reflection Statics
It is our experience that most regular 3D designs will decouple in the traditional sense without
editing. What saves the designer in most cases is the fact that sources and receivers are shifted
around in the field, providing a pseudo-randomized version of the original plan. While this
randomization tends to have a coupling effect on the survey, it does not however guarantee that
the survey couples. The noise plot in MESA demonstrates the degree of coupling which a survey
design possesses.

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If you understand any potential statics problems which may exist in the survey area, you can
consider the way in which your design will sample the statics problem. Extremely long
wavelength statics or large known statics may affect the sampling decision made by the designer,
relating to crossline length or receiver template size.

Velocity
Many of the best 3D velocity algorithms are currently using azimuth as well as other information
to build plots and aid in the determination of stacking velocities. These types of algorithms
require that bins sample offsets and azimuths with enough statistics so the data can be analyzed.
Velocity analysis is usually performed on a super bin, so users should be aware of how the bin-tobin relationships of offsets and azimuths will complement each other. Large gaps in offset
distributions or absence of near traces on shallow reflectors can contribute to problems in the
analysis.

Deconvolution
Surface consistent deconvolution presents the same requirements that reflection statics does.
Evenly sampled data in both the source and receiver domain will contribute to better solutions. At
far offsets, the data often becomes distorted by incidence angle and emergent effects, making far
offsets unusable for the derivation of the deconvolution operator. This imposes additional
requirements that the near traces need to be well sampled to provide the information required by
the deconvolution algorithm.

DMO (Dip Moveout)

DMO will function best if a survey is sampled at all offsets and all azimuths. Obviously, this is not
possible. Modern processing techniques can make up for the lack of sampling required, but a
well-sampled survey in both offsets and azimuths will produce better solutions.
DMO is known to create amplitude artifacts in 3D surveys. This amplitude effect is called
geometry imprinting, artifacts, or geometry foot print. The imprinting effect is reduced if a broad
range of azimuths is collected. As has been demonstrated, this effect becomes more pronounced
for steeper dips and shallower targets (small reflection times).

Coherent Noise Attenuation

Much research has been done in recent years relating to attenuation of coherent noise with
acquisition geometry. The bleed through effects of source-generated noise differ depending on
the acquisition design. Certain geometries will attenuate noise better than others will. Looking at
this issue in a post-stack or post-migration environment is the current work of researchers at
several major companies. Noise plots and Array Analysis from the Advisor menu can be used to
perform source and/or receiver array noise analysis.

15

Relative Amplitude (AVO, AVA)

AVO (amplitude versus offset) and AVA (amplitude versus azimuth) analyses could be a part of
the processing flow in some data areas. Good offset and azimuth sampling within the useful
range of analysis is a strict requirement for either analysis.
Try to gain an understanding of the useful offset range to observe AVO effects in the survey area.
Details like this can help make tough decisions about tradeoffs easier. The tough decisions refer
to compromises between the desired source or receiver sampling and the economic limits that
exist.

16

Information Gathering

Here are some issues to consider during survey design. This list is not exhaustive.

Exploration Objectives
Type of feature (anticline, fault, reef, etc.), Exploration method (structural, stratigraphic), Strike,
Dip, Lithology of target, and Lithology of overburden

Target Description
Depth, Arrival time, Average velocity to target, Interval velocity at target, Dip (expected,
maximum), Bed thickness, Required vertical resolution, Desired reflection frequencies, Expected
horizontal resolution, and Shallowest reflection

Operational Considerations
Expected noise (ambient, source-generated, non-random), Permitting/Positioning, Timing
limitations / weather limitations, Access problems, Digital maps or imagery available, and Data
processing

17

Equations Used in Survey Design

Bin Size
To avoid spatial aliasing in the data:
Bin size at subsurface <

Vi
4 f sin

where Vi = interval velocity at target

f = maximum expected frequency from target
= dip angle

Near Offset Range

Xnear ~ Vshallow x Tshallow
where 0 to Xnear is the offset range over which ~3 fold or more is needed to
stack the shallowest require horizon
Vshallow = Mute velocity in the shallowest section (often ~1800 to
2000 m/s)
Tshallow = Two way travel time to the shallowest required horizon

Long Offsets
Xlong = Vnmo *

t 2 2 * t (0) * t

where t = t(x)nmo t(0) (use t ~ 0.2 to 0.3 seconds to estimate adequate

moveout for velocity analysis)

18

Spatial Resolution
Minimum Vertical Resolution = Vi / ( 4.0 * (Max Freq Min Freq) )
Maximum Vertical Resolution = Vi / ( 2.0 * (Max Freq Min Freq) )
where Vi = the interval velocity at the target
Lateral Resolution = (3 x Vertical Resolution) / sin (30)
Maximum dip is usually a value which is no less than 30. If structural dips are
less than this, it is a conservative practice to use 30.

Fold Coverage
If previous 2D data exists for an area with good signal to noise ratio, a rule of
thumb for 3D fold is to use between one-half to two-thirds of the 2D fold.

Source Density (sources per square kilometer)

Source Density (NS) = [2 (Fold x 106)] / (R x Bx x By)
where

R is the number of recorded channels

Bx is the inline bin dimension
By is the crossline bin dimension

Note: this equation requires that bin dimensions be in meters.

Source Line Spacing

Source Line Spacing = 106 / (NS x Bmin)
where

Bmin is the smallest bin dimension

NS is source density (sources per square kilometer)

Note: this equation is true only if the layout geometry is split spread.

19

Maximum Minimum Offset

MaxMin Offset ( RL2 SL2 ) - SA
where

RL is receiver line spacing

SL is source line spacing
SA is the salvo adjustment. The salvo adjustment corrects
the offset for sources not being concurrent with receivers.
The adjustment is (int(RL/SS) * 0.5 0.5) * SS, where SS is
the Source Spacing.

Migration Aperture
If the survey design can collect emergent energy out to 30 from the normal, then
processing can migrate 95% of the energy back to the diffracting point.
Migration aperture = Z * tan (30)
= Z * 0.58
where

20

Z is depth

Survey Analysis and QC

After designing any survey, the shooting geometry should be analyzed. MESA contains several QC
tools, such as template viewing and editing, source and receiver numbering and ordering, and
definition of the shooting order, for use in the analysis process.

Shooting
When the survey is designed using the Unit Template, the sources will be fired as they are positioned
in the Design window. Similarly, when using the SPS import, the shooting is defined by the relational
file. Shooting can also be defined using script files from I/O systems. However, if you are starting
from the initial layout, or if you add extra sources, then the shooting sequence must be defined.
It is important to understand the terminology used for shooting in MESA. For our purposes, inline for
receivers is the direction from one receiver to the next within the same line. Similarly crossline is the
direction from the first receiver line to the second. For sources, inline is the direction from one source
to the next within the same line, and crossline is the direction of the first source line to the second.
Thus, in an orthogonal geometry inline for sources is perpendicular to inline for receivers.
To use any of the user-defined shooting sequences it is important to recognize the approaches which
the program takes. Several of the shooting sequences use the internal numbering within MESA
rather than the labeling. Automatic Template Centering, Salvo, Swath Sequence, General
Sequence, and Manual Shooting are all based on the internal numbering. Label Based Shooting
and Import Templates use the labeling to determine source receiver relationships. Offset and
Rectangular Shooting ignore labeling and simply use offset values for determining the receiver patch.
In the Design Window, holding down the Shift key and Left-Clicking on any source or receiver will
provide you with the following information:

21

In the above example the labeling and internal numbering are consistent. In this example the
labeling is the user-defined 6018 and is an editable quantity. The internal numbering for this
receiver is the combination of the non-editable line index and the position in line. It is important to
recognize this when considering receiver/source deletion as this will have an effect on the shape and
position of the template. Often it is more convenient to turn off (de-activate) a number of receivers
rather than deleting them (remove from the database) as turning them off will maintain the internal
numbering and thus will maintain the template shape.
After shooting is finished, a template can be viewed by either selecting Edit Templates from the
Utilities menu or by holding down the Shift key and Left-Clicking on a source. The active receivers
for the template will be displayed with the In Template color.

Further information on receivers and sources is accessed and edited through the appropriate edit
modes or spreadsheets.
Offset and Rectangular shooting are the easiest methods for shooting a survey. In either case, the
only thing that must be done is setting the offset ranges. All of the receivers that are within the offset
ranges for a source are added to the template for that source. These methods of shooting are useful
in areas with irregular receiver geometry.
To use the other methods of shooting, a template must first be created. The template is defined by
specifying the number of receiver lines, number of receivers per line, and a starting receiver. More
complex templates can be created by using the Edit Templates option available in the Shooting
dialog.
Automatic Template Centering is the most commonly used shooting method in MESA. For this
method, the closest receiver to a source point is located and used as a centering point for the

22

entire template. It is also possible to skew the template from the center by using the Template
Skewing Dialog. Skewing can be used to perform off-end shooting geometries.
Salvo Shooting handles scenarios of multi-source salvos that span receiver lines and
salvos that require restricting the inline template roll. Salvo shooting is very well suited for
slant geometries and bottom-cable designs.
In our terminology, a salvo is a set of source points (in a single source line) that is located
between two receiver lines. One source point or twenty source points can represent a salvo--it
depends on the layout of the survey. The screen capture below shows source lines in a variable
line spacing receiver grid. The salvos are represented in 3 and 4 source point groups.

Label Based Shooting shoots surveys using the labeling numbers, not the internal numbering. It
is convenient for shooting geometries which have a large number of sources shooting into a
receiver patch (bottom cable surveys, for example).
Prior to entering Label Based Shooting, you need to examine the labeling scheme in your survey.
In the diagram below, the first receiver point is labeled 101501. The receiver inline increment is
one (101502, 101503, etc). Moving to the first point on the second receiver line, 105501, the line
increment is 4000. The label of the first source point is 501101. The source inline increment is
also one. The label number of the first source on the second line is 507101, so the crossline
labeling increment is 6000. Label Shooting operates on these point and line increments, so it is
important to know these values.

23

Both the Swath and General Sequence shooting functions are largely archaic. Most surveys can
be shot more easily using another technique in the program. However, the methods are left in the
program in case some unusual circumstance warrants their usage. These methods will only work
if your survey design is orthogonal and very, very regular.
Swath Shooting can be used for very simple shooting situations: only two roll instructions from the
initial template and source positions are allowed. To use Swath Shooting, the rolls within each
swath must be consistent, and the roll from swath to swath must be consistent, therefore it is not
possible to shoot a brick survey in a single pass via Swath Shooting! One instruction is used to
specify how to move the template along the swath; The other instruction specifies how to move
from swath to swath.
General Sequence Shooting is used for more complicated shooting situations, such as bricks. In
General shooting, there can be an unlimited number of shooting instructions. Each instruction
can move the receiver template inline and/or crossline, and each instruction can move inline
and/or crossline to the next source. The goal of General shooting is to generate a set of
instructions which can be repeated to shoot all or a portion of the survey.
There are two types of instructions in General shooting, "Inner Moves" and "Outer Moves." Inner
Moves can be thought of as instructions which get repeated until the edge of the survey is hit,
much like the "first move direction" instruction in the Swath shooting methodology. Outer Moves
can be thought of as instructions which get carried out when an Inner Move instruction can't be
carried out (i.e. - the edge of the survey has been hit), much like the "second move direction"
instruction in the Swath shooting methodology.
Manual Shooting is used to manually position a defined template and then fire the desired sources
into that template. The template can then be shifted to a new position to fire the next source or group
of sources.
All of these shooting techniques can be limited by specifying ranges of sources and/or receivers or
by using attributes and filtering options. Limiting allows you to change the size, shape, and
orientation of templates across the survey.
Roll-on can be activated or the patch can be held stationary at the edge of the survey. Templates
within the survey can be selectively unshot for single sources or groups within the Edit Sources

24

mode. If sources are moved after firing, the midpoints will also be shown moving. This is a useful
diagnostic when trying to increase the fold in an exclusion zone either by moving existing sources,
firing into new templates, or adding compensation sources.
There are several keyboard shortcuts that can be used to qc or speed up shooting:

Key

Action

T
S

Toggles on/off the template while shooting; Source colors continue to update.
Toggles on/off real time updating of the display while shooting. The display updates after a
group of 500 sources has been fired.
Pause the shooting. The current template is displayed.
Pause the shooting and step to the next source while paused.
Resume shooting after pausing
Fully unzooms the Design Window
Cancels shooting

P
N
C
Z
Esc

25

Shooting techniques compared

Shooting Type
Automatic Template
Centering

Uses

Information
Surveys with fairly uniform receiver lines, surveys with regular or
irregular source lines

Limitations

Template size is static

Uses

Slant surveys, source patterns that span receiver lines

Limitations

Templates may not position correctly at survey edges, always

uses all sources between receiver lines

Uses

Surveys with highly irregular receiver positions, surveys with

regular or irregular source locations, limited offset range shooting

Limitations

Creates a lot of templates, slower shooting method, only creates

a circular patch

Uses

Surveys with highly irregular receiver locations (especially for

imported surveys), surveys with regular or irregular source
locations, surveys where template size can vary

Limitations

May not keep all sources in a salvo together in the same patch

Uses

Creating complex templates, creating large source patches

Limitations

Survey labeling must be regular and consistent

Swath Sequence
Shooting

Uses

Surveys with regular source and receiver lines

Limitations

Method is extremely sensitive to survey irregularities, difficult to

use, other shooting options produce the same answer

General Sequence
Shooting

Uses

Surveys which are difficult to shoot with Swath Shooting in one

pass

Limitations

Method extremely sensitive to survey irregularities, most difficult

method to use, other shooting options produce the same answer

Uses

Good for shooting individual sources that have been added, good
for lassoing large groups, possible to shoot individual sources
which cannot be fired in any other way

Limitations

Very labor intensive, Edit Templates feature offers better method

of manual shooting

Uses

Shooting complicated geometries e.g. button patch, slash (Zig or

Zag) and variable spacing, use with a pre-defined surface or subsurface polygon fill.

Limitations

Unwanted receivers may be generated, survey layout coincides

with shooting so not applicable to surveys which are already laid
out.

Salvo Shooting

Offset Shooting

Rectangular Shooting

Label Based Shooting

Manual Shooting

Unit Template Shooting

26

Binning
The default bin size is half the source and receiver interval. The bin grid will default to the minimum
and maximum receiver bounds rather than the edge of the midpoint coverage.
The size, orientation and relative positioning of the grid are set by the mouse or keyboard and can be
changed for the analysis of various processing parameters. It is also possible to use place-holders or
key-positions to align the grid and thus maintain a consistent grid between design and processing
stages.
It is possible to save and review binned attributes by naming the calculation and then later selecting
it. The Fold Selection option in the Bin Analysis menu is used to select the named calculation to use.
The Fold Compare option is used to compare two named fold calculations. It creates a fold
difference plot.
NB: If you redefine the bin grid or reshoot the survey after calculating attributes, you will need to
recalculate to view the effect.

Attribute Calculation
MESA allows for several types of bin attribute calculation:
Fold only

a quick look technique for analyzing fold

F/O/A

create all fold, offset and azimuth attributes for the whole survey

CRP binning

used in combination with 3DAims this function provides for binning on a

subsurface structure thus producing CRP rather than CMP cover

Multi-Valued

lets you examine fold for particular instrument component combinations

Flex Binning

set a flex radius to include midpoints from surrounding bins in each bin

Partial survey:
The Calculation Extents options can be used to calculate the desired information for a
limited geographical region of interest. The region can be defined either manually by
entering a range of grids to use or by graphically selecting the grid range with the mouse.
Once the bin attributes have been calculated a series of QC plots become available in the Design
Window and under the Bin Analysis menu.
Please be aware that the bin and midpoint files can be very large for large surveys and therefore
calculation and display may take some time.

27

The Bin Attribute Plot

This information can be accessed through either the Design Window or the Bin Attribute Window.
These windows provide access to the main survey QC screens. When the Bin Attribute Window is
opened, the bin grid is displayed. After the Mouse Identification mode has been set to Bins, hold
down the Shift key and Left-Click on a bin to display the bin information dialog.
Fold can be shown as a color-fill plot or numerically. The colors in the display may be changed by
using the interactive color scale. The entire fold can be displayed, or just the fold for limited offset or
azimuth ranges. It is also possible to set a Mute Function (offset or first break) in the Bin Analysis
menu and then apply one or both of these mutes to the fold. Be aware that setting the mute function
on for the fold will also apply the mute to the offset and azimuth displays.
The default offset plot is a black and white stick histogram in each bin with each line representing
one midpoint. The x-axis of the histogram corresponds to the inline bin direction. The scale
ranges from zero offset on the left edge of the bin to survey max offset on the right edge of the
bin. The y-axis is scaled exactly the same way, so the longer histogram lines represent traces
with longer offsets. Gaps in the histogram reflect a discontinuous offset distribution. This plot
may be changed to a color histogram where the midpoints are summed according to offset range
and color coded by redundancy. Set the number of histogram lines in the # Histograms edit box.
The survey maximum offset distance is divided by # Histograms to establish a series of offset
ranges. Midpoints are summed for each offset range. A histogram leg is plotted at the center of
each offset range, and is color coded by the number of midpoints in the range. DMO and
migration will move trace energy across surrounding bins so it is more important to consider the
contents of a neighborhood of bins, than to consider individual bins. The window can also be used to
show color-fill plots for selective offset ranges, the Near Offset plot is especially useful when
analyzing the effect of exclusion zones, and the Far Offset for ensuring that the depth of target will be
reached.
Azimuths are plotted as a spider in each bin where the length of the leg is proportional to the offset
for that midpoint, and the direction of the leg denotes the azimuth. Color spiders (color denotes
offset), ball plots, circle plots, and trace azimuth plots can also be shown.
Combination plots can be created by displaying fold, offset and/or azimuth plots simultaneously.
Mega-Spider plots can also be displayed on any plots. When Mouse Identification is set to Bins, hold
down the Ctrl key and Left-Click on a bin to display the Mega-Spider for that bin.

The Bin Attribute Graph

This plot provides a mechanism for viewing all the information along a bin line in either the inline or
crossline direction. The Bin Graph Options dialog allows the user to select the active parameter for
the y-axis and for the color, both to be plotted against bin number on the x-axis. Thus each vertical
column is the CMP bin containing cells of offset usually chosen as the group interval. The default is
to plot offsets on the y-axis and azimuths by color as this is the most useful for viewing the effect of
exclusion zones. This plot appears as a series of V shapes in which all of the possible offsets are
defined for use in velocity analysis. The Show Cross Section in Design Window option plots a line to
show the currently displayed bin line in the Design Window.

The Bin Statistics Window

The Bin Statistics Window offers a statistical summary of all midpoint information in the survey.
The X and Y axes change depending on the type of graph you select. The axes can represent
percentages, actual numbers, fold, offset, etc. You have the option of displaying a fold graph, an
offset graph, an azimuth graph, a rose diagram, or an offset fold chart. A statistical window for
displaying a textual summary of bin attribute information is also available.

28

EXERCISE #1 -- Basic MESA Usage

This exercise shows the basic sequence of steps for creating a survey in MESA. You will be
laying out sources and receivers, translating the survey, shooting the survey, defining a bin grid,
calculating diagnostics, and outputting the survey to SEG-P1 files.
Different types of geometries can be created in MESA. Layout types such as slant, zig-zag,
radial, button, random, etc. can all be created. This exercise will focus on a simple, straight line
orthogonal layout.
1.)

From the Layout menu, select the Receivers option. This will open a submenu of receiver
layout options. For this exercise choose the Lines/Bricks option. This will open the
Line/Brick Layout dialog.

The Line/Brick Layout dialog is used to define the parameters for the receivers in a
survey. Laying out sources uses a very similar dialog. You need to specify the inline and
crossline spacings, line bearings, starting coordinates, and survey size. Survey size can be
set in several different ways in MESA: first by declaring the number of lines and the
number of receivers to be included in each of those lines, second by declaring the inline
and crossline sizes, or third by filling in a previously defined area, either an exclusion zone
or source lines. Later exercises will show how to use these fill options for determining
survey size. The brick options are used to create brick surveys instead of orthogonal.
Instrument types and numbering can also be defined in this dialog.
Fill in the receiver Line/Brick Layout dialog as shown on the next page.

29

Click on the Numbering button to specify the survey numbering you wish to use. Any
numbering that you set in this dialog will be used for any sources or receivers you lay out
afterwards. For this example, use MESAs default numbering system.

Also note that you can specify receiver and source line prefixes and suffixes, which can be
alphanumeric.

30

Click on the Instrument button to enable the following dialog, in which you can define
various instrument types:

Again simply use the default value. Close the Define Instrument dialog and press the OK
button in the Line/Brick Layout dialog to lay out the receivers.
2.)

Now lay out the sources. Select Sources -> Lines/Bricks from the Layout menu. This
will open the Line/Brick Layout dialog for sources. You will need to fill in the dialog as it
appears below. It works exactly like the receiver dialog. After you parameterize your
source layout and press OK, the sources will be displayed and your Design Window should
look like the picture on the next page.

31

3.)

You can set the units for the measurement system at any time. Select the Units option
from the Layout menu and toggle on the desired system of units:

4.)

Notice that the header line on the Design Window reads <untitled>. This indicates that
the database has not been saved. Save the design by opening the File menu and
selecting Save Database. Enter the name exercise01 at the File Name prompt and
press Save. <untitled> is now replaced by exercise01 in the Design Window title bar.
Your design is a (7920 x 7920) 2.25 square mile 3-D survey. Receiver interval is 110,
receiver line interval is 440, source interval is 110 and source line interval is 880. The
receiver line azimuth is 90 degrees from true north and the source line azimuth is true
north. The initial source and receiver positions have each been offset from (0, 0) by 55 in
their inline directions.

32

5.)

Select Translation from the Utilities menu. The Translation/Rotation dialog is used to
change the coordinates and the azimuths of the survey. Changing both the coordinates
and the azimuths is a two step process. First do the Coordinate Translation. This can be
done graphically or by specifying actual figures; fill it in as below and press OK.

Next open the Translation/Rotation dialog again and do the Coordinate Rotation; this can be
done graphically or by specifying figures; again fill it in as below and press OK.

33

Press the Full Unzoom button on the Zoom toolbar in the Design Window and you will see that
the survey has been translated to the new location and rotated to the specified angle.

34

6.)

The Design Window should now look as it does above. The Zoom toolbar, shown below, is
used to adjust the display and contains the Range/Bearing tool. You can zoom in on the
survey with the right mouse button. Press and hold the right mouse button to draw a zoom
rectangle. When you release the right mouse button, the display will update to show you
just that region. You can perform the zoom function multiple times. To zoom out one step
from the current zoom level, press the Zoom Out 1 Level button, the magnifying glass with
the sign; if you are already at the full zoom level pressing the Zoom Out 1 Level button
zooms you out by another 50%. To zoom to 100% of the full view, press the Zoom Out
100% button, the magnifying glass with the letter F. The Aspect Ratio button has the x=y
on it. As long as this button is down, the survey is always displayed at a fixed ration. If the
button is not depressed, then the survey will be displayed at the ratio defined by the size of
the Design Window.

7.)

Open the Find Record or Bin button submenu and verify that the mouse is set to identify
Receivers and Sources. Hold down the Shift key and Left Click on a source in the Design
Window. The following dialog will appear:

35

Change any of the editable fields and press Apply to edit the information for this source.
Press the Spreadsheet button to go to the spreadsheet entry for this source. Press the
Instrument button to modify the instrument settings for this source. Notice that the live
receiver template for this source is highlighted in the Design Window if you have shot your
survey. Holding Shift and Left Clicking on a receiver will open the same dialog with the
information for the receiver.
Once you are in the spreadsheet (you can also access the source and receiver
spreadsheets by selecting Receiver Spreadsheet or Source Spreadsheet under the
Layout menu), you can Right Click with the mouse in any cell to bring up a menu of editing
functions.
You can also change the source or receiver information with the Edit toolbars. Select the
Edit option from the Receiver Display/Options or Source Display/Options button
submenu. A later exercise will go into more detail about the Edit toolbars.

36

8.)

Now you can create a template and shoot your survey. Press the Shoot button to open the
Shoot dialog. Many different methods of establishing source and receiver relationships
are available in MESA. As the shooting process progresses, source points will change
color in the Design Window and their associated receiver patterns will be highlighted.
Selecting the appropriate shooting algorithm will depend upon the geometric relationship
between your source and receiver points. You will be using Automatic Template
Centering in this exercise. Later exercises will demonstrate how to use some of the other
shooting methods.

Once you have opened the Shoot dialog, press the Create Template button and define
an 8 line by 48 receiver shooting patch. This template will be displayed in the Select
Template list in the Template Options section. Select the template and press the Shoot
button. The dialog will close and MESA will begin to simulate shooting the survey in the
Design Window. Once it is finished shooting, all of the sources will be displayed in red,
meaning they have been fired. Select Edit Templates from the Utilities menu to view the
results. Left click on a source to view the receiver patch for that source. Go back into the
Utilities menu and select Edit Templates again to exit this mode.

37

9.)

38

The next step is to define the bin grid. Select Bin Grid Settings from the Display Bins
button submenu to open the Bin Definition dialog. Fill in the Inline and Crossline Bin
Size boxes as shown. Click on the Auto Fit button to automatically fill in the remaining text
boxes. Select OK and the bins will be defined. To view the bin grid, zoom into a small area
in the middle of the survey and depress the Display Bins button.

10.) Now that you have shot the survey and defined a bin grid, you can calculate the fold and
midpoint attributes. Select Fold Calculation from the Bin Analysis menu to open the
Fold Calculation dialog. Choose the option to calculate the Fold, Offsets, and Azimuths
and press OK. After the calculations finish, the Fold Graph, Offset Graph, Azimuth
Graph, and Noise Graph buttons, on the Bin Attributes toolbar, become active. Zoom into
an area of the survey and press these buttons to view the attributes.

11.)

After you are finished laying out and editing the survey, the survey information can be
written to a variety of output files. One very useful format that has industry-wide
acceptance is the SEG-P1 ASCII survey format. You can export the survey information to
this format with the SEG-P1 option in the Output menu:

39

Press the File button in the Source File section and type output_exer01.src at the File
Name prompt, and select Save. Press the File button under the Receiver File section and
type output_exer01.rcv at the File Name prompt and select Save. These two files will be
used in later exercises. Press OK to create the files.

40

DO IT YOURSELF #1
From the File menu, select the New Database option. Save your current database when
prompted to do so.
Lay out a survey using the following parameters:
Receiver Inline Spacing:
Receiver Crossline Spacing:
Receivers Per Line:
Number of Lines:
Receiver Inline Bearing:
Receiver Crossline Bearing:
X-Coordinate of 1st Receiver
Y-Coordinate of 1st Receiver

50 m
200 m
42
11
90 degrees
0 degrees
0.0
0.0

Source Inline Spacing:

Source Crossline Spacing:
Sources Per Line:
Number of Lines:
Source Inline Bearing
Source Crossline Bearing
X-Coordinate of 1st Source
Y-Coordinate of 1st Source

50 m
200 m
40
11
0 degrees
90 degrees
25.0
25.0

Save the survey with the name basic.

41

EXERCISE #2 -- Line/Brick Layout Options

This exercise demonstrates some of the different layout options avaiable for line/brick layouts in
MESA. You will be creating three surveys in this exercise. The first survey will be completely
uniform and will use sequential numbering; the second survey will have variable receiver line
spacing and will be numbered with the grid based method; the third survey will use slanted
source lines.
1.) Start MESA, or select New Database from the File menu if you have a survey already loaded
in MESA. You will be creating a simple straight line orthogonal survey. Select Receivers
Lines/Bricks from the Layout menu. Fill in the Line/Brick Layout dialog as it appears
below. Press the Numbering button to open the Numbering dialog.

2.) A unique identifying number is usually created by combining a line number with a number for
the receiver or source. For example, if the first receiver line of a survey is called the 101
line and the first receiver on that line is called 501, then the receiver point is called 101501.
The next point on that line will be called 101502. In the survey you are laying out, there will
be 6 sources per source line between each receiver line. Because of this, the receiver line
numbering interval will increment by 6, the 101 line, the 107 line etc So the first receiver
on the second receiver line will be 107501. The sources will start with Line 501 and the
sources will start numbering with 101, so the first source is 501101. Since there will be 8
receivers per line between each source line, the source line will increment by 8, so the first
source of the next line will be 509101.
Survey Numbering can be done during source or receiver layout or by using the
Renumbering option in pull down menus from the source/receiver display buttons.
Normally numbering assumes a uniform spacing where you can supply a numbering
system that will label every point in an ordered fashion. The numbering system can be

42

used to indicate spatial location, in addition to simply labeling the sources and receivers.
Sequential numbering works fine as long as the survey is uniformly spaced. If the survey
has varying line spacing or point intervals, sequential numbering will not work properly.
Grid based numbering was developed for non-uniform surveys.
Fill in the Numbering dialog as it appears below. The First Receiver field contains the full
unique identifying number for the first receiver. The Receiver Inc field contains the
increment for numbering the next receiver in line. The Receiver Line Inc field contains the
increment for numbering the first receiver of the next line. MESA will determine what
portion of the number is a Line Number with this increment. You can also specify a Line
Name Prefix or Suffix in this dialog. The Line Name will be created by taking the Line
Number and adding any prefix or suffix that is specified. Notice that you can define the
numbering for both receivers and sources in this dialog. You only need to define the
numbering for each once. Any sources or receivers that you lay out after setting the
numbering will use the defined sequential numbering scheme.
Once you have filled in the Numbering dialog, press OK in it and then press OK in the
Line/Brick Layout dialog to lay out the receivers. Press the Label Display/Options icon
to display the receiver labels in the Design Window, as shown below.

43

3.) Now lay out the sources. Select Sources Lines/Bricks from the Layout menu. Fill in the
Line/Brick Layout dialog as it appears below. Since you set the source numbering at the
same time as the receivers, you do not need to open the Numbering dialog again.
Display the labels once the sources are laid out and the Design Window should appear the
same as below. Save the survey as exercise02_regular.

44

4.) The sequential numbering system will not work as reliably for the next survey. You will be
laying out new receiver lines with variable spacing. Open the Line/Brick Layout dialog for
the receivers. Fill out the dialog as it appears below. Notice that when you check the Use
Var. Crossline Spacing option, the Variable button becomes active. Press the button to
open the Variable Crossline Spacings dialog. Fill it in as shown and press OK. Press the
OK button in the Line/Brick Layout dialog to lay out the receivers. Select Remove when
prompted to remove the existing receivers.

The survey will now have receiver line intervals of 300, 200, and 100 instead of the uniform
300 and should appear as below. The line numbering wont be able to increment by an
even 6 as it did before since between any 2 adjacent receiver lines there are either 2, 4, or
6 source points on any one given source line. Ideally the goal would be to have line one be
101, line two be 107, line three be 111, line 4 be 113, and line 5 be 119. This is not a
sequential sequence.

45

5.) With the new receiver lines displayed, select Renumbering - Grid Based from the Receiver
Display/Options button sub menu. Grid based numbering renumbers the survey by
placing a user-defined grid on the survey and numbering that grid sequentially. Anytime a
receiver line or point occupies a part of the grid with a number associated with it, the point
will get that number. The grid is given a reference number similar to the starting number in
the uniform survey, 101501. The grid is defined so that it will occupy every possible
location of a receiver line or point. In this example the grid spacing is 50 in both the inline
and crossline direction since 50 is the source spacing and we want to reflect the number of
sources between each pair of receiver lines. The grid is defined to increment by 1 in the
inline direction and by 1000 in the crossline direction.
Press Auto Fit to automatically fill in the Grid Reference fields. Fill in 50 for both the Inline
and Crossline Grid Spacings after you have performed the Auto Fit calculation. Press
OK after filling out the Grid Based Renumbering dialog as shown. MESA has now
numbered a variable line spaced survey in the same reliable manner as that of a uniformly
spaced survey.
Select Save As New Database from the File menu to save this survey under a new name.
Save the survey as exercise02_variable.

46

6.) Finally we will use the Slant option to create a survey with a slanted source layout. Select
New Database from the File menu. From the Layout menu, select Receivers, and then the
Lines/Bricks option. Fill in the Line/Brick Layout dialog as shown and click on OK:

47

7.) Next, use the Lines/Bricks option to lay out the sources. Fill in the dialog as follows. When
you check the Use Slant Parameters option, the Slant button is activated. Press the
button to open the Slant Layout Parameters dialog. Set X Moveup to 110, Y Moveup to
220, and Line Spacing to 1320. Press OK in both dialogs to lay out the sources.

48

8.) Save the survey as exercise02_slant. Your survey should look like this:

49

DO IT YOURSELF #2
From the File menu, select the New Database option. Save your current database when
prompted to do so.
Design a survey with the following dimensions. The receiver and source numbering should
match as in the exercise02_regular and variable surveys. Use 101501 for the first receiver and
501101 for the first source.
Survey Size:

5mi x 5mi, (26400 x 26400)

Receiver Interval:
Receiver Line Interval:
Receiver Line Inline Bearing
Receiver Line Crossline Bearing
X-Coordinate of 1st Receiver
Y-Coordinate of 1st Receiver

220
1100
90 degrees
0 degrees
605984.00
1655974.00

Source Interval:
Source Line Interval:
Source Line Inline Bearing
Source Line Crossline Bearing
X-Coordinate of 1st Source
Y-Coordinate of 1st Source
Brick Pattern

220
880
0 degrees
90 degrees
605874.00
1656084.00
5 sources/brick, 2-line repeat

Bin Size
Shooting Template

110 x 110
12 x 72

SAVE AS

multi1

50

EXERCISE #3 -- Unit Template Layout

This exercise demonstrates how to use the Unit Template option for laying out a 3-D seismic
survey. You will be creating a 3-D survey in this exercise by filling a survey boundary. The survey
will be a brick pattern that will be used later in the course.
1.)

Start MESA, or select New Database from the File menu if you have a survey already
loaded in MESA. Choose Edit Exclusions from the Exclusion Display/Options button
submenu. This will open the Edit Exclusions toolbar:

2.)

Check that the Create Exclusion icon is selected. Choose the Survey Boundary icon
from the possible exclusion types. You can keep the default Name, if desired, but you
must specify a Layer for the exclusion. Select <New Layer> in the layer list and create a
layer called Boundaries.

3.)

Next, click on the Define Exclusion icon. The following dialog will appear:

Note that you can specify the color, the infill pattern, and what will be excluded for the
exclusion zone in this dialog. Since you will be filling this boundary with sources and
receivers, toggle off all of the options in the Exclude: box.
4.)

Press Exclusion Def, and enter the following X,Y coordinates to define the survey
boundary. Remember to press the Add button after typing in each X,Y coordinate pair.
(622484, 1674674), (622484, 1690514), (633044, 1690514), (633044, 1685234),
(638324, 1685234), and (638324, 1674674)
Exit the exclusion editing mode by selecting Edit Exclusions from the Exclusion
Display/Options button submenu again.

51

5.)

52

Select Unit Template from the Layout menu. This will open the Unit Template window.
Press the Layout Template icon to create your unit template. It will ask you to first set the
grid size for use in laying out the template. Set the grid size to 110. After you set the grid
size, the Template Layout dialog is displayed. Enter the numbers as they appear in the
dialog below. The template is a 10 x 64 patch, receiver interval 220, and receiver line
interval 880. Press Apply to layout the receivers. The sources need to be centered in the
middle of the receivers. There is one line of 4 sources that will be fired into each set of 10 x
64 receivers, and the sources have a 220 interval. The starting coordinate centers the
sources. Press Apply under the Source Layout section to add the sources to the template.
You could continue to add or replace receivers or sources to create more complex
templates. Select Exit to finish laying out the template.

6.)

Once you have finished laying out the template, there are editing options available in the
Unit Template toolbar. You can add, move, or delete any of the sources or receivers. You
can also add, copy, move, or delete entire templates. For this example the desired source
pattern is a 1320 source line interval bricked at 660. The template needs to be copied one
time from its current location to a location 880 in the vertical direction and 660 in the
horizontal direction. Select the Make/Copy Template icon to open the Copy & Move
Options dialog. Choose Copy Template and set X to 660 and Y to 880. Press OK to
display the updated template.

7.)

At this point the template can be repeated to lay out and shoot the survey. Select the
Shoot Options icon from the Unit Template toolbar to open the Unit Template Repeat
dialog. Enter the values as shown on the next page.
You will be setting the size of the survey by filling the exclusion zone that you defined at the
beginning of this exercise. The Clipping section sets how the survey size area is filled.
Clipping the Receivers/Sources means that the receivers and sources fill just the defined
area. Clipping the fold means that enough sources and receivers are added to provide full
fold in the defined area. In this example, you want to have sources and receivers in the
defined area only, so select Clip Receivers/Sources to Bounds. Supply 1320 for the
Inline and 1760 for the Crossline spacings at which to repeat the unit template. The
Template Reference Point defines where to start the template layout. You want to start the
template from the corner of the survey boundary. Press the Select Point button to
graphically set the starting point for laying out the templates. Highlight the receiver at
(6600, 3520) as the starting point and select the Shoot Options icon again. Press OK,
and the survey will be laid out and shot in the boundary.

53

The Design Window should now have a survey similar to the one below. This survey has a
receiver interval of 220 and a receiver line interval of 880. The source interval is 220, and
the source line interval is 1320 bricked at 660, shot with a 10x64 template. Since the bin
grid is placed automatically with this layout method, you can go immediately to the Bin
Analysis menu and select the Fold Calculation option to calculate the fold and midpoint
attributes.
Save this survey as multi2. You will be using it again in a later exercise.

54

DO IT YOURSELF #3
From the File menu, select the New Database option. Save your current database when
prompted to do so.
Select Edit Exclusions from the Exclusion Display/Options button submenu. Press the Read
Exclusion File button and load the exclusion file called multi2.xcl. This loads the exclusion zone
from the multi2 survey into the new survey. Exit the edit mode by selecting Edit Exclusions
again.
Now use the Unit Template Window to lay out the survey. Create a template with the same
parameters you used in Exercise #3. You will be creating an orthogonal survey this time, so you
do not need to copy the template. Instead choose Move Template(s) and shift the X Coordinate
by 110.
In the Unit Template Repeat dialog, choose Fill Polygon, Clip Fold to Bounds, set Inline and
Crossline Spacings to 880, Auto-Calculate Reference, and set Specify Line Bearing to 90.
Do not check the option to Use Full Templates. This will layout a survey that has just enough
receivers and sources to generate full fold in the exclusion zone. Select Fold Calculation from
the Bin Analysis menu to look at the fold coverage.
After you look at the fold coverage, go back to the Unit Template Window and re-open the Unit
Template Repeat dialog. Use the same settings, but this time check the option to Use Full
Templates. Also make sure that you check Remove Existing Survey. This will remove the
survey and then lay out a new survey. The new survey will still have full fold in the exclusion
zone, but now it has all of the receivers necessary for each source to have a full template.
Output the survey information into SEG-P1 files called output_exer03.src and
output_exer03.rcv.

55

EXERCISE #4 The Design Guide

This exercise demonstrates the use of the Design Guide to aid in the layout of your survey. You
will be defining an exclusion zone and filling it with sources and receivers. You will use the
Design Guide to determine the source and receiver spacings, bin grid size, and template size
needed for your desired target parameters.
1.)

Start MESA or select New Database from the File menu if MESA is already running.
Create a new survey boundary exclusion zone. Use the layer name Boundaries for this
exclusion and give it the following coordinates:
(-50, 0), (2400, 0), (3260, 1590), (3090, 2470), (2430, 2850), (1050, 2900), and (-50, 1500)

After you have finished laying out the exclusion zone, save the database as exercise04.
It should look like this:

56

2.)

Under the Layout menu, select the Design Guide option. Fill in the interval velocity at
target, the dips, and the horizon time for the zone of interest, as shown in the following
dialog:

Notice that the edit boxes in the Target Parameters group box are tied to the fields in the
Bin Size group box, so changing information in one area automatically updates information
in the other area. Max bin sizes are calculated for both inline and crossline dips. Change
the bin size to 25 m in each dimension and the Max Recoverable Freq increases to 105.3.
The following equation is used to keep the values in the Target Parameters group box
consistent with the values in the Bin Size group box:
Bin Size
Bin Size = Int Velocity at Target / (4.0 * Max Recoverable Frequency * sin (Dip Angle))
3.)

Next, change the source and receiver intervals to be twice the bin size, or 50 m. You can
experiment with various line spacings, but choose 200 m for both source and receiver line
spacings.
Vertical Resolution Estimate
Vertical resolution is based upon the interval velocity at the target and the bandwidth of the
recoverable frequencies.
Minimum Vertical Resolution = Int Velocity at Target / ( 4.0 * (Max Freq Min Freq) )
Maximum Vertical Resolution = Int Velocity at Target / ( 2.0 * (Max Freq Min Freq) )

57

Lateral Resolution Estimate

Lateral Resolution = 3.0 * Minimum Vertical Resolution / sin (Maximum Dip Angle)
NOTE: The factor of 3.0 comes from an estimate that it takes 3 seismic traces to identify a
geologic feature.
Nominal Fold Calculation
Nominal Desired Fold = (Number of Channels * Min Bin Size) / ( 2.0 * Line Spacing)
NOTE: Line Spacing is the smaller value of source line spacing and receiver line spacing.
Any change to the template size, bin sizes, or line spacings will regenerate the nominal fold
value shown in the Design Guide.
4.)

Click the Velocity Function button to open the Stretch Mute Time/Velocity Pairs dialog.
This dialog is used for entering time-velocity pairs and calculating a stretch mute.
Change the Stretch Mute Percent to 0.25 and then enter the following time-velocity pairs,
remembering to press Add after typing in each pair:
(600, 1800), (1000, 2400), (2000, 3000), and (3000, 3600)

If you need to remove a time-velocity pair, select the pair in the list and then click on the
Delete button. If you need to edit a pair, select the pair in the list, make the appropriate
changes in the Time or Velocity edits, and then select a different pair in the list to apply the
changes. Click on OK to save the changes to the stretch mute. The mute will be drawn in
the Mute Functions window. This mute can be applied in the Limits options of any of the
bin attribute displays.

58

5.)

Next, press the Calc Mute Offset button to bring up the following dialog:

The effects of the mute function can be seen for offsets in increments of 100 units. In
addition, the mute offset at the target is listed, along with the maximum minimum offset for
the survey.
Max Minimum Offset ( RL2 SL2 ) - SA
Where RL is Receiver Line Spacing, SL is Source Line Spacing, and SA is the salvo
adjustment. The salvo adjustment corrects the offset for sources not being concurrent with
receivers. The adjustment is (int(RL/SS) * 0.5 0.5) * SS, where SS is the Source
Spacing.
Click on OK to exit this dialog.
6.)

Next, click on Calc Template Size.

59

Notice that spacings are given for the fold, and the max minimum offset is listed as well. If
you change the source line spacing, the receiver line spacing, or the number of channels,
press Compute Table to recalculate the data in the list box. Specify 384 as the Number of
Channels, and click on Compute Table.
Based upon the equation for Nominal Desired Fold, the suggested line spacings for
achieving this fold value (as well as the maximum minimum offset value) are displayed in
this dialog.
Before exiting the dialog, you should select the desired template from the list box.
Changes made in this dialog will be reflected in the main Design Guide dialog.
In this case, select 8 lines with 48 channels per line and click on OK. Click on Done in the
Design Guide dialog when you are finished. You will then be asked if you wish to proceed
to either the Unit Template Layout or the Line/Brick Layout. Select Line Layout and the
parameters from the Design Guide will be transferred to that layout mode.
7.)

First, for the receivers:

Fill the polygon that you defined at the beginning of this exercise by selecting the Fill Zone
option.
Click on OK to lay out the receivers.

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8.)

And, for the sources:

Again, choose the Fill Zone option to fill the exclusion zone you defined.
Under Shift of First Source, specify 25 for both the X and Y values. This will offset the
first source a distance of one-half a group interval from the starting receiver.
Under Brick Options, toggle on the Brick Pattern and enter 4 Sources Per Group with a
Line Repeat Interval of 2. Click on OK to lay out the sources.

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Save the survey. It should look like this:

62

EXERCISE #5 -- Importing Survey Files

This exercise shows how to import coordinate ASCII files to layout a survey in MESA.
The ASCII files to be imported are the source and receiver SEG-P1 files created from the
exercise01 survey in Exercise #1. MESA can import data from any columnar ASCII file type.
1.)

You will import the survey from the SEG-P1 files. First you will import the receivers.
Select Receivers File Import from the Layout menu. This opens the Receiver Import
Setup dialog. If you are importing a standard file type, you can select the type from the list
to automatically load the configuration file for it. You can also load your own configuration
file if you have created one for the file you want to import. You can then use the Open
Data File button to specify the file to load. The configuration file will then be used to import
the data from that file. In this case, you do not have a configuration file so you will have to
manually define the data to import from our file.

2.)

Press the Import Window button. The Import Window is used to manually define the data
to import from a file. You can save configuration files in the Import Window. The
configuration files make it much easier to import multiple files that have the same format.
Select the Open Data File icon and choose the ASCII receiver file output_exer01.rcv that
was created in Exercise #1. That file will then be loaded in the Import Window as shown on
the next page. You are now ready to define the variables.

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3.)

The list box contains the variables to define from the data in the ASCII file. When you are
initially importing points, you must specify at least Line Number or Line Name, Receiver or
Source, X Coordinate, and Y Coordinate. After you have the survey in MESA, you can
update points by simply specifying Receiver or Source and the information that you wish to
update. For this exercise you will be defining the Line Number, Receiver, X Coordinate,
and Y Coordinate. As Line Number appears first in the list box, begin by defining the
columns that represent the Line Number. Use the mouse to highlight the range of columns
for that parameter in the file. After the information is highlighted, press the Define Type
icon. In the Format Definition Dialog, you specify the format of the variable and the
decimal location and press OK.

4.)

After you have finished in the Format Definition Dialog, the information area of the
Import Window toolbar turns green and displays the information that you just set. Now is a
good time to set the first line to import as well. With the Line Number columns still
highlighted, press the Set First Line icon. This opens a dialog where you tell MESA what
the first line with data in the file is. The dialog opens with a default value of the line that is
highlighted. If you have highlighted something on the first data line, you can just press OK
to set that as the first line to import. Otherwise, you can type in the first line that you want
to import and press OK.

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5.)

Now that you have set the Line Number and the first line to import, select Receiver in the
list. Highlight the last four digits of the receiver number (0001). Press the Define Type
icon. It should be INTEGER by default, so simply press OK. You will be using the
combination options later to combine the Receiver and Line Numbers. In this case, you
could just highlight the whole number and a few extra columns to the left for the Receiver
value. If you highlight the whole number, you can turn off the combination options.

6.)

The final things to set are the X and Y Coordinates. For the X Coordinate, highlight
24720850. The SEG-P1 format has an implied decimal that must be added back during the
import into MESA. In the Format Definition Dialog, change the type to FLOAT (DOUBLE).
In the Decimal Point section, press the << button to move the decimal point one place to
the left, making the X Coordinate 2472085.0. Press OK. Choose Y Coordinate, highlight
65237300, and again change it to FLOAT (DOUBLE) and move the decimal point one place
left.

7.)

You can review what you have set by pressing the Review Configuration icon. Keep
pressing it to cycle through all of the items that you have defined. You can save these
settings to a configuration file with the Save Configuration File icon. If you have saved
configuration files, you can load them with the Load Configuration File icon. If you did not
want to import the entire file, you can use the Set Last Line icon to set the last line of data
to import. The last line to import is the end of the file by default.

8.)

Once you are ready to import the file, press the Exit icon. MESA will ask if you are ready
to import the data. Press Yes to continue with the import; Press No to close the Import
Window without importing anything; Press Cancel to return to the Import Window. When
you continue the import, the Import Options dialog opens. This dialog lets you remove or
update existing records when you import. Press the Combination Options button. Since
you defined a separate Line Number and Receiver, you must combine them to create the
unique Receiver number in MESA. Be sure that Combine Line Number and Receiver
Numbers is checked and that Receiver Number Digits is set to 4. Press OK here, and
then press OK in the Import Options dialog. The receivers should now be imported and
displayed in the Design Window.

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9.)

66

Select Sources File Import from the Layout menu and repeat the previous steps
using the source file (output_exer01.src) from Exercise #1. When you are finished, you
should see the survey displayed as shown. Save the survey as exercise05.

DO IT YOURSELF #5
From the File menu, select the New Database option. Save your current database as when
prompted to do so.
Load the SEG-P1 files you created in Do It Yourself #3. Save the survey as fullfold. You will be
doing more with this survey in a later exercise.

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EXERCISE #6 -- Marine Design

This exercise demonstrates the marine design capabilities of MESA. Designing marine surveys
uses many of the same options as designing land surveys, including defining bins and calculating
attributes. It is possible to generate sail lines in the Design Window and view any of the fold,
offset, and azimuth attribute displays available in MESA.
In this exercise, you will create a marine sail polygon and a marine survey to fill the polygon.
1.)

The first thing to do is define a marine sail polygon exclusion zone. Define the exclusion
zone just as you did in Exercise #3, except use the Block Polygon icon instead of the
Survey Boundary icon. Here are the coordinates for the polygon:
Point #1:
(10000, 0)
Point #2:
(20000, 0)
Point #3: (20000, 10000)
Point #4: (10000, 20000)
Point #5:
(0, 10000)
When you are finished, the exclusion zone should be displayed in the Design Window as it
appears below. This exclusion zone will be the boundary for your marine survey.

2.)

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Once you have created the exclusion zone to fill, select Marine Design Window from the
Layout menu. This opens the Marine Window, and since this is the first time you have
opened the Marine Window for this database it also automatically opens the Edit Boat
Configuration dialog. This dialog is used to create or edit any of the boats in your marine
survey. Most of the edit fields are self-explanatory. The Boat Coordinate is only used for

multi-boat configurations. If you only have one boat, leave it at (0, 0). Fill in the Edit Boat
Configuration dialog as it appears below and select OK. The Marine Window will update
with the boat you defined and should look as it does below. At this point you can add
another boat, delete the boat, or edit the boat. The Edit Grid button can be used to
redefine the grid for laying out or editing the sources or streamers.

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3.)

Once you have finished setting up the boat configuration, select the Unit Cell Binning icon
to define the binning parameters. The Unit Cell Binning dialog is used to define
parameters for binning a unit cell. The unit cell is a repeatable unit containing the bin
attributes of the full fold area. The number of bins generated is larger than the actual unit
cell, but a sufficient number of bins is provided to create a diagnostic display. Fill in the
dialog as shown below. Select OK and the Marine Window will fill in accordingly. The
current configuration and sail spacings will yield an 18 fold survey.

4.)

Now you will use this boat configuration to generate a marine survey that fills the exclusion
zone you defined. Select the Sail Lines icon to open the Sail Lines Options dialog. Fill in
the dialog as it appears below. You are filling the exclusion zone in this exercise, but it is

70

also possible to just fill a rectangular area. The Line Bearing defaults to the longest
distance across the defined area. Generate Offlap extends the sail lines so that the area
to fill is full fold. If you do not generate offlap, the survey ends at the fill area boundary.
Generate Sail Lines actually displays the marine survey in the main Design Window. It is
not necessary to generate the sail lines to perform unit cell bin analysis in the Marine
Design Window. Select OK after filling in the dialog. The main Design Window will update
with the marine survey inside the defined polygon. Your window should appear as on the
next page. Zoom into the northern most corner and hold down the Shift key and Left Click
on a source. The Source Information dialog will be displayed. If you look in the Design
Window, the source will be highlighted and the streamer positions for that source will be
displayed.

71

5.)

72

In order to generate and view the diagnostics, you will now need to define a bin grid to fit
the marine survey. Select Bin Grid Settings from the Display Bins button submenu and
fill in the Bin Definition window as shown.

6.)

Select the Fold Calculation option from the Bin Analysis menu and calculate Fold,
Offsets, and Azimuths. Once the calculations are finished you can view all of the attribute
plots for the marine survey. The fold plot should appear as it does below, showing 18 fold
throughout the area enclosed by the polygon. Toggle off the display of the source points to
improve the visibility of the fold plot.

73

EXERCISE #7 -- Using GMG Image

This exercise explains how to use GMG Image to prepare images for use in MESA. GMG Image
can be used to warp an image to fit a known group of points, crop an image, and shift an image.
It can also merge together layer files to make one image. In this exercise, you will georeference
a file by converting it to GMGs image format. You will also use the warp tool to adjust an image.
1.)

Start GMG-Image and select the TIFF option from the Load submenu in the File menu.
Select the image.tif file and click on Open. The Coordinate Entry dialog allows you to
position the image. This dialog is displayed if there is no georeference file with the image.
Enter the following scale and coordinates for the image:

The XY coordinates correspond to the upper left corner of the image. When the
calculations are complete, the image will be displayed. Feel free to zoom and pan to
evaluate the quality of the image. This image shows a variety of real world obstacles that
will need to be accounted for in the survey design.

74

2.)

Select the File menu and choose the Save Layer File option. Give the output file a
name and press Save. The .lyr file extension will be appended automatically. The
georeferencing information is now stored with the image so it will be correctly sized and
positioned when the LYR file is opened in MESA.

3.)

Select Load->Bitmap from the File menu. Load the map.bmp file. Use the defaults in
the Coordinate Entry dialog. This image needs to be warped so that the known points are
at the correct location.

4.)

Press the Add Warp Control Point button. Click in the center of the A dot. This opens
the Coordinate Entry dialog. Change the whole number portion of the coordinates to
50000, 54000, leaving any decimal portion unchanged. This is the correct location for the A
dot. Press OK. A red dot is drawn to show the initial location and a yellow x is drawn to
show the updated warp location. At least three points need to be specified to warp an
image. Change the center of the A dot to 53000, 50000 and change the center of the C
square to 50000, 50000, again keeping the decimal portions of the coordinates.

75

5.)

76

After the three warp points are set, select Image->Warp Image from the Display menu
to perform the warp. GMG Image updates the image so that the defined points are
positioned at the warp locations. Select Save Layer File from the File menu and save the
warped image as map.lyr.

EXERCISE #8 -- Source and Receiver Editing

This exercise demonstrates some of the editing tools available in MESA to change your surveys.
You will import an image to use as a background. Once the survey is set up with the image as
the background, the receiver and source editing tools can be used to move points: singularly, line
by line, or as a group. Creation and editing of exclusion zones can also be aided by the use of
images in the background.
1.)

Start MESA. Go to the Layer Display/Options button submenu and select the Load
GMG Layer option. Load the image.lyr file that was created in GMG Image in the
previous exercise.

77

2.)

Select Open Database from the File menu and open exercise05. Loaded images
remain loaded when you open or close surveys. You can unload images by selecting
Unload from the Layer Display/Options button submenu. Look at the first receiver line.
There is a road on the image that runs near the first receiver. The road is at a different
angle than the receiver line. Lets assume that you actually wanted the survey to be
parallel to that road. You can use the Range Bearing tool to determine the difference in the
angles. You can then use the Translation/Rotation tool to move the survey to the new
position.

3.)

Press the Range Bearing tool button. If you click and hold down the Left Mouse button,
you can draw range bearing lines. Hold down the Ctrl key when you draw the lines to snap
the start and end points of the line to the nearest records. Zoom in on the road a bit, click
near the center of the road by the first receiver, and then drag and release the button in the
center of the road further along. You should see that the bearing is about 131.6. Hold
down the Ctrl key and click on the first receiver. Drag and release the button on another
receiver in the line. You should see that that the receiver line bearing is about 139.7. This
means you need to adjust the survey by -8.1 degrees to have the receiver lines parallel to
that road. Press the Range Bearing tool button again to turn off the tool. Select Clear All
from the button submenu to remove the lines from the display.

4.)

Select Translation from the Utilities menu. Choose Specify Both in the Coordinate
Rotation section. Put -8.1 in the Rotation Angle box. Make sure that both Receivers and
Sources are checked and press OK. The survey should be rotated so that the first
receiver line is parallel to the road.

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5.)

Now you want to redefine the third source line so that it follows the road that is displayed
behind it. Select Edit Sources from the Source Display/Options button submenu.
Choose Line Selection Mode and Redefine Line. Click on the road where you want the
line to start, and then click out several points along the road. Double click to finish adding
points and the source line will be redefined to follow the points you chose. Select Edit
Sources again to exit Source Editing mode.

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6.)

Finally, the last seven receivers on the first receiver line are too close to the housing
development. You will use the Design Grid, the Move command, and the Snap command
to accurately reposition those receivers. Select Edit Receivers from the Receiver
Display/Options button submenu. Press the Design Grid button. Press Autofit. Change
the grid sizes to 55 by 55. Check Display Design Grid and press OK. Hide the image
from the display in order to more easily see the design grid.

7.)

Choose Group Selection Mode and Move. Draw a polygon around the seven receivers
and move the polygon to the intersections just above the first source. Double click to place
the seven receivers.

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8.)

You can now use the Snap function to position the receivers precisely. Choose Record
Selection Mode and Snap. You may have to use the Move function to get the receivers
closer to the correct intersections. You could also set the Snap Options so that the
receivers automatically snap to the nearest intersection after each move. Select Save As
New Database from the File menu and save the survey as exercise08.

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EXERCISE #9 -- Offset (Circular) and Rectangular Shooting

This exercise demonstrates the Offset (Circular) and Rectangular shooting methods. Offset
(Circular) and Rectangular shooting are the easiest methods for shooting a survey. In either case,
the only thing that must be done is setting the offset ranges. All of the receivers that are within the
offset ranges for a source are added to the template for that source. These methods of shooting are
useful in areas with irregular receiver geometry.
1.)

Start MESA and select Open from the File menu. Open the survey exercise05. Press
the Shoot button on the Edit toolbar to open the Shoot dialog.

2.)

Offset Shooting uses absolute offsets to determine the live receiver patch for a source.
Press the Offset Options button to set the offsets. If a Minimum Offset is specified, the
template is ring shaped instead of simply circular. Fill in the dialog as shown and press the
OK button. Press the Shoot button to actually shoot the survey. The Design Window will
update to show each source being fired along with the template being used. Use the
keyboard shortcuts from page 24 to speed up or pause the shooting.

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3.)

When shooting is finished, the next step should always be examing the templates that
were created. Select Edit Templates from the Utilities menu. While in Template
Selection mode, left click on a source to display the receiver patch for that source. All of
the sources that fired into that patch will be highlighted. Use the arrow keys on the
keyboard to step through all of the templates. When you are finished looking at the
templates, select Edit Templates from the Utilities menu again to exit the edit mode.

4.)

Press the Shoot button again. The template list is now filled with the templates created
by the Offset Shooting. Be careful about removing templates from this list. If a template is
removed without unshooting the survey, all of the sources still look like they have been
fired, but some of the sources will no longer have associated receiver patches. Press the
Unshoot Survey button to return the sources to their unfired state. Now that the survey is
unfired, it is safe to press the Delete All button and remove all of those templates.

83

5.)

84

Select Rectangular Shooting and press the Rect Options button. This will open the
Rectangular Options dialog. Rectangular Shooting works like Offset Shooting but it uses
a rectangular region around the source instead of a circular template. The Bearing
Dimension is the length of the rectangle along the specified bearing. The Cross-Bearing
Dimension is the length of the rectangle perpendicular to the specified bearing. The
rectangle is centered around each source and all of the receivers within this area are
included in the receiver patch for that source. Fill in the dialog as shown and press OK.
Press the Shoot button to shoot the survey again. Look at the resulting templates with Edit
Templates.

6.)

Return to the Shoot dialog, unshoot the survey, and delete all of the templates again.
Select Offset Shooting once more, but this time uncheck the Fire All Sources option.
Press the Shoot button. Instead of beginning to shoot the survey, MESA prompts you to
select a starting source. Click on the source at 2474236.20, 6523317.60. This is the 13 th
source on the 3rd source line. Press the Shoot button on the Edit toolbar to open the
Auto-Shoot Limits dialog.

7.)

The Auto-Shoot Limits dialog is used to specify a subset of the survey area for shooting.
In this case, the limits will only affect the sources. The receivers portion is used to limit roll
on/off with other shooting methods. The values in the edit boxes correspond to MESA's
logical ordering of sources and receivers and not the point label numbering. Fill in the
source limits as shown and push the Shoot button. Shooting will then commence for the
specified area. The survey should appear as shown.

85

EXERCISE #10 -- Automatic Template Centering

This exercise demonstrates the Automatic Template Centering shooting method. Automatic
Template Centering is the most commonly used shooting method in MESA. For this method, the
closest receiver to a source point is located and used as a centering point for the entire template.
It is also possible to skew the template from the center by using the Template Skewing Dialog.
Skewing can be used to perform off-end shooting geometries.
1.)

Start MESA, if necessary, and select Open from the File menu. Open the survey basic.
Press the Shoot button to open the Shoot dialog.

2.)

A template must be defined to use Automatic Template Centering. Press the Create
Template button. The template defines the size of the receiver patch that is active for
shooting. In Automatic Template Centering, this template is centered around each source.
Fill in the Number of Lines and Receivers Per Line values as shown and press OK. The
template should be automatically selected in the template list and Automatic Template
Centering should be the selected shooting method. Verify that the Template Roll On/Off
and Fire All Sources options are both checked. Press the Shoot button to shoot the
survey.

3.)

Select Edit Templates from the Utilities menu and look at the shooting results. Because
this survey is idealized and has the sources perpendicular to the receiver lines, all of the
sources in a line between two receiver lines have the same centering position, so they are
all fired into the same receiver patch. If the sources did not line up, they would have
different receiver patches.

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4.)

It is also possible to skew the template so that the sources are not in the center of it. Go
back into the Shoot dialog and unshoot the survey. Press the AutoCenter Options button.
The resulting dialog is used to specify the skew in terms of number of receivers and
number of receiver lines. Fill it in as shown, press OK, press Shoot, and then look at the
results in the Edit Templates mode.

87

5.)

88

In both of the previous shooting cases, the receiver patch has rolled on and off the edge
of the survey. The amount of roll on/off can be changed if necessary. Unshoot the survey
and reset the skew parameters to 0 and 0. Uncheck the Template Roll On/Off option and
press Shoot. MESA brings up the Auto-Shoot Limits dialog. This dialog is used to set the
ranges where the receiver patch stops rolling. Press the Survey Edges button to fill in the
dialog with the full extents of the survey. This will cause the receiver patch to stop rolling
when it reaches the edges of the survey. Press the Shoot button to shoot the survey.

6.)

Press the Open Database button and load the exercise04 survey. Using the template
from the Design Guide, shoot this survey with Automatic Template Centering, making
sure to Fire All Sources and Roll Template On/Off. Look at the results in the Edit
Templates mode. The template looks good in the lower half of the survey, but it is not
correct in the upper half. The problem is that the template is positioned by using the
internal sequential numbering. Since the starting position of the receiver lines changes, the
sequentially numbered receivers do not line up. There would be a similar problem if there
were gaps of missing receivers in the middle of the lines. The full number of receivers for
each line would still be in the template regardless of the gaps. The position of the last
receiver on each receiver line will not affect the template positioning if the template is rolling
off the survey.

7.)

The Shooting Grid option is used to correct the template positioning in surveys with
irregular starting postions or gaps in the middle of receiver lines. Return to the Shoot
dialog and unshoot the survey. Select Automatic Template Centering as the shooting
method and toggle on the option to Use Shooting Grid at the lower right. The Shooting
Grid option will impose a grid on the receivers which will compensate for the irregular
shape of the survey.
The shooting grid should automatically have default values that will work well for the survey.
It is also possible to manually define the shooting grid for greater control. Click on the Grid
button to open the Shooting Grid dialog. Press the Auto Fit button to set the values in the
dialog as shown. Press the OK button to close the dialog, and then press the Shoot button
to shoot the survey. Look at the results in Edit Templates mode. The receiver templates
should be the same throughout the entire survey area.

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90

EXERCISE #11 -- Salvo Shooting

This exercise shows the Salvo shooting method. Salvo shooting handles scenarios of multisource salvos that span receiver lines and salvos that require restricting the inline template roll.
Salvo shooting is very well suited for slant geometries and bottom-cable designs. In our
terminology, a salvo is a set of source points (in a single source line) that is located between two
receiver lines. One source point or twenty source points can represent a salvo, depending on the
layout of the survey.
1.)

Start MESA, if necessary, and select Open from the File menu. Open the survey
exercise02_slant. Press the Shoot button to open the Shoot dialog.

2.)

Create a 10X72 template and use Salvo Shooting. Press Shoot to set the salvos. Click
on a source in the center of the survey area. Salvo shooting takes all of the sources on
that line between two receiver lines and shoots them into the same template. You can
select several salvos and the receiver template will automatically adjust to be centered
between all of the selected salvos. Click on a salvo again to remove it from the template.
Experiment for a bit with selecting salvos to see how the template changes. For this
example, just select one salvo for the template.

3.)

The template is centered around the selected salvos by default. It is also possible to
skew the template so that it is no longer centered. Press the arrow keys on the keyboard to
move the template around. The green instruction bar at the bottom of the Design Window
will update with the amount of skew in terms of receivers and lines. Try moving the
template around. Return the template to the original, centered position when finished.

91

4.)

Unselect the Shoot icon to finish selecting salvos and to open the Salvo Roll dialog.
The roll parameters are used to specify which sources are fired. A value of 2 for Source
Line Roll would fire every other line of sources, starting with the selected sources. A value
of 2 for Receiver Line Roll would fire every other row of sources, again starting with the
selected sources. The default values of 1 and 1 shoot the entire survey. The Auto-Shoot
Limits work the same as in the other shooting methods and can be used to further limit the
sources and receivers used. For this example, use the defaults of 1 and 1 and do not set
and Auto-Shoot Limits. Press Shoot to shoot the survey.

5.)

As always when shooting, examine the results with Edit Templates from the Utilities
menu.

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EXERCISE #12 -- Label Shooting

This exercise demonstrates the Label Shooting method. Label Shooting shoots surveys using
the labeling numbers, not the internal numbering. It is convenient for shooting geometries which
have a large number of sources shooting into a receiver patch (bottom cable surveys, for
example).
1.)

Start MESA, if necessary, and select Open from the File menu. Open the survey basic.
Before using Label Shooting, it is very important to know the numbering scheme of the
survey and to know the numbers of the initial template location. In this case, a template in
the bottom left corner of the survey area will be used for the initial setup. The template will
use sources 40005 to 40008 and receivers 10002 to 10025, 20002 to 20025, 30002 to
30025, and 40002 to 40025.

2.)

Press the Shoot button on the Edit toolbar. Unshoot the survey and delete all of the
templates, if necessary. Press the Create Template button and make a template of 4 lines
by 24 receivers per line. Select Label Shooting and press the Shoot button. This will
open the Label Number Shooting dialog.

3.)

The Label Number Shooting dialog has two parts. The spreadsheet is used to specify
the initial template and also to display the updated positions as the template rolls. The Roll
Parameters section is used to control how the template rolls. Fill in the template
spreadsheet with the values from step 1 for the initial template. As the From and To
columns are filled, the Design Window updates to show the specified sources and
receivers. When finished, the Design Window should appear as shown.

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4.)

94

After the initial template is correctly entered into the spreadsheet, the Roll Parameters
are used to roll the template. The values in the Roll Parameters fields are added or
subtracted, depending on the direction of movement, from the numbers in the spreadsheet.
If the new values correspond to numbers in the survey, those sources and receivers are
used for the new template. If the numbers do not correspond, the process is repeated.
This occurs until the entire survey has been shot. The Preview buttons are used to check
the Roll Parameters. Press the Up Arrow button and observe the results to the
spreadsheet and in the Design Window.

5.)

Obviously the default roll parameters are not going to work in this case. The sources shift
by 1 location and the receivers shift by 1 line. Recall that the numbering scheme for this
survey has the numbering increase by 1 in the inline direction for the sources and by 6000
in the crossline direction for the receivers. For this template, the roll should move the
template up to the next group of 4 sources and just 1 receiver line up. Only the original
template can be edited, press the Home button to return to it and then change the Source
Points to 4. Leave the Rec Line Roll as 10000, since this is correct. Press the Up Arrow
button again to observe the change.

6.)

Press the Home button again to return to the first template position. Now try pressing the
Right Arrow button. Again the default parameters are not correct. This time the template
needs to move crossline with regards to the sources and inline with regards to the
receivers. The numbering for receivers increases by 1 inline and there are 4 receivers
between source lines. The number for sources increases by 10000 between source lines.
In this case, change the Rec Points to 4 and leave Source Line Roll as 10000. The
template should now roll correctly when you press the Right Arrow button. It is a good
idea to roll the template several times in the different directions to check that everything is
set correctly.

7.)

The Use source limits option can be used to specify the sources to shoot instead of
simply shooting the entire survey. In this case, leave the Use source limits option
unchecked and press the Shoot button to shoot the survey. As always, examine the results
with Edit Templates from the Utilities menu.

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DO IT YOURSELF #12
Open the exercise02_regular survey. Try to shoot this survey with label shooting. The template
should have 4 lines of receivers and 32 receivers per line. There will be 6 sources in each
template. When you have finished shooting the survey, look at the results with Edit Templates
from the Utilities menu. The templates should appear as shown.

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EXERCISE #13 -- Multi-Survey Capability

This exercise shows how to load multiple surveys in one MESA session. In areas where existing
3-D survey information exists, you can import those surveys and build designs that merge or
zipper your current survey designs with the pre-existing ones.
You will be importing two 3-D surveys for exercise #13. The surveys are multi1, which was
created in the Do It Yourself section of Exercise #1, and multi2, which was created in Exercise
#3. After importing both surveys, you will calculate three fold plots: a plot showing the new fold
for multi1, a plot of the new fold for multi2, and a combined fold plot for both multi1 and multi2.
1.)

Start MESA, if necessary and Open Database from the File menu. Open the survey you
created in Exercise #1 called multi1. View the fold by pressing the Fold Graph icon to
make sure that all the fold calculations still exist.

2.)

Go back to the File menu, select the Multi Database option, and under this option select
Load. Unload and Select will become active once multiple surveys are loaded in the
Design Window. Open the survey you created in Exercise #3 called multi 2. Your Design
Window should look like the following.

3.)

Notice that the title of the active survey is in the Design Window title bar. Right now the
active survey is multi1. If you display the fold now, it will show you the fold plot for multi1.
Leave the fold displayed in the design window. Under the File menu, select the Multi
Database option again and choose Select. This will bring up the Select Database dialog
that allows you to choose which of the loaded databases is active. Choose multi2 and
select OK. The Design Window is now showing both geometries but only the fold of multi2.

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The idea of having a multiple database survey is to show how the attributes of one survey
will affect the other.

4.)

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First you will look at how multi2 will affect the fold of multi1. Make multi1 the active
database again. Open the Display Bins button submenu and select Bin Grid Settings to
open the Bin Definition dialog. Notice that the Fit To Multiple Databases check box is
now active. For this calculation though, you only want the bin grid to cover the active
survey, so leave the Fit to Multiple Databases option unchecked. Press the Auto Fit
button and then press OK. View the new bin grid in the Design Window to check that the
bins only cover the multi1 survey.

5.)

Once your Design Window appears as above, open the Bin Analysis menu and choose
the Fold Calculation option. In this window select Fold, Offsets, and Azimuths in the
Calculation Options section. In order to calculate the fold with the influence of multi2, you
must create a named calculation. Check the Named Fold Calculation check box (MESA
will give the calculation a default name) and that will activate the option to Use Multiple
Databases. Check this option as well and press OK. The fold in the Design Window will
now show the original fold throughout the majority of the survey and the increased fold
where multi1 and multi2 overlap. The display below shows the fold without the sources and
receivers displayed for a clearer view.

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6.)

Do the same procedure now for multi2. Unselect the Fold Graph icon to remove the fold
plot from the display. Under the File menu, select Multi Database and choose the Select
option. Make multi2 the active survey. Select Bin Grid Settings from the Display Bins
button submenu and in the Bin Definition dialog perform another Auto Fit, this time for
multi2. Do not toggle on the Fit to Multiple Databases checkbox. Select OK and display
the bins in the Design Window. The Design Window should be similar to the window below.

7.)

Open the Bin Analysis menu and choose the Fold Calculation option. In this dialog
select Fold, Offsets, and Azimuths for the Calculation Options. In order to calculate the
fold with the influence of multi1, you must create a named calculation. Check the Named
Fold Calculation check box (MESA will give the calculation a default name) and that will
activate the option to Use Multiple Databases. Check this option as well and press OK.
The fold in the design window will now show the original fold throughout the majority of the
survey and the increased fold where multi1 and multi2 overlap. The display below shows
the fold without the sources and receivers displayed for a clearer view.

8.)

MESA can also calculate the fold for the entire multi database area including the overlap
region between multi1 and multi2. Open the Display Bins button submenu and select Bin
Grid Settings. In the Bin Definition dialog, check the Fit to Multiple Databases option.
After checking this option, press Auto Fit and select OK. The Design Window should
appear as below.

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9.)

Open the Bin Analysis menu and choose the Fold Calculation option. In this dialog
select Fold, Offsets, and Azimuths for the Calculation Options. In order to calculate the
total fold for multi1 and multi2, you must create a named calculation. Check the Named
Fold Calculation check box (MESA will give the calculation a default name) and that will
activate the option to Use Multiple Databases. Check this option as well and press OK.
The fold in the design window will now show the original fold throughout the majority of the
surveys and the increased fold where multi1 and multi2 overlap. The display below shows
the fold without the sources and receivers displayed for a clearer view.

DO IT YOURSELF #13

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Make multi1 the active database. Redefine the bin grid so that it does not use multiple
databases. Select Fold Deletion from the Bin Analysis menu and Delete All of the named fold
calculations that you created.
Now create two new named fold calculations: one that uses just multi1 and one that uses multi1
and multi2.
Select Fold Compare from the Bin Analysis menu. Fold compare creates a color plot of the
difference between two fold calculations. Compare the fold for multi1 and multi2 with the fold for
just multi1.
Toggle on the Fold Graph button to display the difference plot. Now you can see exactly how
much fold is added by the overlap area. The fold comparison is also very useful for comparing an
ideal survey plan against the actual production data. This will be demonstrated in a later
exercise.

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EXERCISE #14 -- Using Advisor

This exercise demonstrates some of the functionality of the Advisor menu. This menu is not
available in MESA Field.
1.)

From the File menu, select the Open Database option and open multi1.mas.

2.)

From the Advisor menu, choose the Aperture Modeling option. The following toolbar will
appear:

3.)

Select the Add Model Target icon and click on the survey to position a target. The target
position can be adjusted in the parameters dialog to precisely place the target. After you
click on the survey, the Target Parameters dialog will appear. Set the parameters as
pictured. When you click OK, the target will be displayed as a red square in the Design
Window. Click on the survey and add a second target with the pictured parameters.

4.)

Next, select the Add Segment button and click on the active target (the second target) to
add a segment to define the shape of the target region by specifying the depth, dip, and
azimuth of the dip. After setting up the first segment, click again to create a second
segment.

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5.)

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Now you need to add segments to the first target as well. You need to make the first target
the active target to add segments to it. Press the Select Target button and then click on
the first target. Select the Add Segment icon again and define two segments for the
target.

6.)

Your Design Window should now look like this:

The blue outline defines the full-fold migration aperture. In other words, you need to have
full fold in this region if you desire to adequately image your target region.
7.)

Plotting the fold in the design window indicates that this region extends out of the full fold
area. You would need to extend the survey to the east to fully image the target area in this
case.

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EXERCISE #15 -- Attributes and Filtering

This exercise demonstrates how to add attributes to a survey and how to filter a survey based on
those attributes. Attributes can be integers or floating point numbers and are associated with
either receivers or sources. The only limit to the number of attributes that you can add to a
survey is the amount of physical memory (RAM) on your machine. Filters allow you to define
subsets of source and receiver points within your survey design. By filtering based on attribute
values, you can design very complicated surveys that span acquisition environments and use
multiple types of equipment.
You will be creating a generic transition zone survey in this example. Part of the survey area will
be declared water with an attribute. You will then shoot the survey with two different templates for
the water or land areas.
1.) Select Open Database from the File menu and load fullfold.mas, the survey you created in
Do It Yourself #5. Open the Edit Exclusions toolbar.
2.) Choose the Polygon icon to create a regular polygon zone. Create a polygon with the
following coordinates:
(636120, 1696800), (636120, 1669070), (649000, 1669070), (649000, 1696800)
The polygon should be displayed on the survey:

3.) You are now ready to start adding attributes to the survey. Select Add/Remove Attributes
from the Attribute Visibility and Options button submenu.

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4.) Notice the tabs in this dialog. You can create attributes for either sources or receivers by
selecting the appropriate tab. First, create a source attribute. Press the Add button. This
opens the Add Attribute dialog. You give the attribute a name and choose its type in this
dialog. Name the attribute water and make it an integer. Press OK. The attribute will be
listed in the source attributes. Now switch to the Receiver Attributes tab and create the
same attribute for the receivers.

5.) Press OK to return to the Design Window. You have now added an attribute to the sources
and the receivers. You still need to assign values to the attribute; this can be accomplished
in several different ways. You can use the Import Window to import values from an ASCII
file, manually enter values in the spreadsheets, identify a point (hold down the Shift key and
Left-Click on it) and manually enter the value, set all sources or receivers in an exclusion
zone to the same value, and use the Edit toolbars to assign values to single points, lines of
points, or groups of points. In this exercise, you will be assigning values with the
spreadsheets and the exclusion zone tool.
6.) Select Receiver Spreadsheet from the Layout menu. You will want to assign a value of 1 to
every receiver that is East of X Coordinate 636120.00. Left-Click on a cell in the X
Coordinate column to highlight it. Right-Click on the cell to open the edit menu and select
Sort. You want to sort the spreadsheet so that the X Coordinates are ascending. You do
not need to set a secondary sort key. Press OK in the Sort dialog to sort the spreadsheet
into ascending X Coordinate order.

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7.) Scroll down through the spreadsheet until you find the X Coordinates larger than 636120 (the
first one should be at line 3393 in the spreadsheet). Scroll over to the water column and
put a 1 in the water cell for that row. Click on a different cell and click back on the water cell
to highlight it again. Scroll to the very end of the spreadsheet, hold down the Shift key, and
left click on the last cell in the water column. This will highlight all of the cells in the water
column between the cell you just edited and the end of the spreadsheet. Right-Click on the
highlighted cells and select Fill from the menu. Fill the range with an increment of 0. All of
the receivers that are East of 636120 should now have a water value of 1. Close the
spreadsheet.

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8.) Now you need to set the attribute value for the sources. You will use the exclusion zone tool
to do this. Select Edit Sources from the Source Display/Options button submenu. This
opens the Edit Sources toolbar. Press the Exclusion Attribute Mode button.

9.) The first time you press this button, the Exclusion Record Attribute Settings dialog opens.
You use this dialog to define the attribute and the value to give it. You also choose to set
the value either by manually selecting exclusion zones or by automatically setting the value
for all exclusion zones in a layer. Choose the option to Select Exclusions Manually, find
water in the Attribute list, and set the Value to 1. Press OK to go to the Design Window to
select the exclusion zone. Click on the exclusion zone that you defined. The exclusion
should quickly flash to indicate that it was selected and that all of the sources in the zone
now have a water attribute of 1. You can now make a filter to check the attribute settings.
Select Edit Sources from the Source Display/Options button submenu to exit source
editing mode.

10.)Select Filter Options from the Record Filter and Filter Options button submenu. The filter
dialog defines what sources and receivers are displayed. You construct a filter by
combining comparison statements. Any source or receiver that passes the filter settings is
displayed; all of the other sources or receivers are hidden from the display. Only the visible
sources and receivers are used for any program functions. Shooting, bin attribute
calculations, data output, statistics, etc. only use the unfiltered points. This feature provides
tremendous flexibility, particularly on complicated survey designs with different shooting
templates, different kinds of the equipment, and different terrains.
11.) You want to filter the survey to show you just the sources and receivers that have a water
value of 1. This way you can check that all of the points in the exclusion zone were
updated correctly. For the Source Filters, find water in the list of items to filter, choose Is
Equal To from the comparison statements list, and put a value of 1 in the value box. Press
the Add button to add the statement to the filter list. You could continue to add statements
to the filter list to make a more complex filter. If you select logical AND filters, all of the
statements have to be true for the source to be displayed. Select logical OR filters to
display sources that are true for any of the statements in the list.

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12.)Switch to the Receiver Filters tab and create the same comparison statement. The receiver
and source filters are entirely independent, so you can have completely different filtering
criteria for your sources and receivers. Press OK once you have the filters set.

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13.)Toggle the Record Filter and Filter Options button in the Design Window to apply or
remove the filter. Notice that the filter parameters are displayed in the legend so that you
can see exactly what is being displayed. You should only have the sources and receivers
in the exclusion zone displayed when the filter is applied.

14.)Return to the filter dialog and switch the filter settings. Change the comparison to NOT
EQUALS and press the Update button. This will update the statement in the list with the
new comparison. You can also Remove the existing statement and Add a new one.
Change both the source filter and the receiver filter to water NOT EQUALS 1.

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15.)You can now use the filtered survey to shoot a template that changes as it rolls into the
filtered area. In Exercise #3, you shot this survey with a 10 by 64 template. You want to
use this template again on the displayed part, but you will use a different template for the
water points. Assume you do not want the 10 by 64 template to use the water points.
Press the Shoot button.
16.)Create a 10 line by 64 receivers per line template. Choose Automatic Template Centering
and press Shoot to shoot the survey. Toggle off the filter so that the entire survey is
displayed and check your templates with Edit Templates from the Utilities menu. Notice
that only the displayed sources were fired and that the templates only use the displayed
receivers.

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17.)Now you want to shoot the water sources. Assume that you want to use the non water
receivers in the templates for the water sources. Additionally assume that you want to have
4 receiver lines live in the water, but 10 lines live on land. Update the source filter so that
water EQUALS 1, but leave the receiver filter as it is. Toggle the filter on.

18.) Press the Shoot button. Choose the 10x64 template and Automatic Template Centering
again. Check the Use Line Filters option and press the Line Filters button. The Line
Filtering dialog allows you to honor or override the filtering for each line in a template. All
lines honor filtering by default. Since you want to have 4 lines live in the water area, you
need to choose segments 4, 5, 6, and 7 and set each of them to override the filter settings.
Press OK in the Line Filtering dialog and press Shoot to shoot the water sources.

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19.)Turn off the filter and look at the templates with Edit Templates again. Notice that the water
sources have templates with 10 lines of non-water receivers and 4 lines of water ones.
Save the changes to the database.

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DO IT YOURSELF #15
Try several different operations with the filter on and off to see the differences. Turn the filter on
and look at the Land Survey Statistics or perform Cost Analysis. Now try them with the filter
off.
Unshoot the land portion of the survey without affecting the water sources (filter the survey so
that only the land sources are displayed). Now try to shoot the land again with the 10 x 64
template. This time have two receiver lines live at the bottom of the template in the water section
of the survey. Use Edit Templates to look at the results:

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EXERCISE #16 -- Displaying Data

This exercise shows how to display different types of data in MESA. You will be using secondary
coordinates, fold difference plots, and attribute plots.
1.) Select Open Database from the File menu and load fullfold.mas, the survey you used in
Exercise #15. The water attribute should still be set for the part of the survey in the exclusion
zone.
2.) First, you want to use the secondary coordinates feature to store the initial survey
coordinates. Every source and receiver point now has a primary X, Y and, Z coordinate and
a secondary X, Y, and Z coordinate associated with it. The primary coordinate is the
displayed coordinate. The secondary coordinate simply allows you to store another
coordinate position for each point. You can use the secondary coordinate to store the initial
idealized survey coordinates, and have the actual real world positions in the primary
coordinates. You can then swap the two positions to see the differences.
3.) Select Secondary Coordinates from the Utilities menu. This opens the Secondary
Coordinates Options dialog. This dialog is used to change or update the coordinates.
Choose Store Primary Coordinates as Secondary Coordinates. This feature copies the
primary coordinates into the secondary coordinates, essentially creating a backup copy of the
primary coordinates. You want to store Both Receiver and Source Coordinates. Press OK
to store the coordinates.

Now that you have stored the coordinates, you can Restore Primary Coordinates from
Secondary Coordinates to copy the secondary coordinates back into the primary
coordinates. You can also Swap Primary and Secondary Coordinates to simply swap
the primary and secondary coordinates without overwriting each other. Select Change
Display Options to activate the Display Coordinate Difference Vectors option. When
this option is checked, vectors are drawn in the Design Window to show the difference in
position between the primary and secondary coordinates.

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4.) Select Randomizer from the Utilities menu. This function randomizes the positions of
sources and receivers by moving them to a random point within a limited distance from
their original position. Set the options in the Randomize Coordinates dialog as shown.
This can be used to simulate the randomness of a real world survey.

5.) Open the Secondary Coordinates Options dialog again. Select Change Display Options
and then check Display Coordinate Difference Vectors. The Minimum Difference to
Display field lets you limit the vectors that are displayed. MESA will only display vectors
that are larger than the minimum you specify. So if you only want to see vectors for points
that moved more than 25 units, put a 25 in for the minimum difference. For now, simply
leave the minimum as 0, this will display vectors for every point. Press OK and zoom in on
the Design Window. You will see the vectors displayed; the end of the vector is the position
of the secondary coordinate for that point.

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6.) Try swapping the primary and secondary coordinates a few times. You might try swapping
just sources or just receivers as well. Finish by swapping the original idealized survey back
into the primary coordinates. Turn off the vector display by unchecking the Display
Coordinate Difference Vectors option.
7.) Define a 110 by 110 bin grid for the survey. Select Fold Calculation from the Bin Analysis
menu. Calculate Fold, Offsets, and Azimuths to a named fold calculation titled fullfold
ideal Full Data.

8.) Swap the primary and secondary coordinates again so that the randomized survey is
displayed. Select Fold Calculation and create a named fold calculation titled fullfold
random Full Data.

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9.) Now you can compare the two named fold calculations to generate a fold difference plot. The
fold difference plot lets you easily see areas where the randomized survey positions greatly
change the fold distribution. Select Fold Compare from the Bin Analysis menu. Compare
fullfold random Full Data to fullfold ideal Full Data. Name the fold difference plot
Fold difference. Press OK to generate the fold difference plot.

10.)Toggle the Fold Graph button on to display the fold difference plot in the Design Window.
You may need to zoom in and toggle off the display of the sources and receivers to better
see the difference plot. You can switch to a different fold calculation to display by using the
Fold Selection option in the Bin Analysis menu. When you are done looking at the fold
displays, swap the ideal coordinates back into the primary coordinates.

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11.) Attributes can be displayed in the Design Window with color plots as well. Open the
Receiver Spreadsheet from the Layout menu. Left-Click on the Z Coordinate column
header to highlight the entire column. Right-Click on the highlighted cells to open the edit
menu and select Formula.

12.)You can use the Formula dialog to fill cells in the spreadsheet with information from other
cells. In this case, you want to create a Z Coordinate by subtracting off a large portion of
the X Coordinate. Select X Coordinate from the Database Variables list. It will be
automatically added to the Formula. Press the button and then choose Secondary X
from the list. This will subtract each rows Primary and Secondary X Coordinates and then
the result of this calculation will be put into the Z Coordinate cell.

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13.)Now you can display the color plot for Elevation in the Design Window. Close the Receiver
Spreadsheet. Select Attribute Display from the Attribute Visibility and Options button
submenu. The Attribute Display dialog is used to choose the attributes to display. You
can display a source attribute, a receiver attribute, or both. For this example, leave the
source attribute as None and set the receiver attribute to Elevation. Press OK.

14.)Press the Attribute Visibility and Options button to display the receiver attribute color plot
now.

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DO IT YOURSELF #16
It is now possible to define different symbols for different instrument types. Open fullfold.mas
and select Edit Receivers from the Receiver Display/Options button submenu. Choose group
selection mode, select Instrument from the list box, and then click out a box around some of the
land receivers.
In the Define Instrument dialog, choose new instrument from the list and add a multi component
phone R1 to the new instrument. You can display this new instrument with a different symbol by
checking the Override Default Symbol option. Check this option and choose a different symbol
for the new instrument. Press OK to close the dialog. Select Edit Receivers again to exit the
editing mode. You should now see the different symbols in the Design Window. Notice also that
the legend has the instrument name listed for the new symbol.
Try creating some different instruments for sources and water receivers.

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EXERCISE #17 -- Overview of Recent Features, Part I

This exercise demonstrates several features from recent MESA releases and how they might be
used to solve a variety of design and integration problems.
1.) Open MESA. In addition to displaying raster images, contour files, and vector files, MESA
now supports the display of Shapefiles. Select Shapefile Manager from the dropdown menu
of the Shapefile display toggle button.

The Shapefile Manager window will appear. Shapefiles can be loaded as individual files or by
selecting entire directories containing multiple Shapefiles. For this exercise, press the Add Files
button and open yampa_canyon.shp. The filename will appear in the Shapefiles Draw Order
listbox. When you select a file in the listbox, additional controls for setting Fill Pattern, Fill Color,
and Outline Color appear in the window. For this example, leave the default settings intact.

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Press the OK button to return to the Design Window. The Shapefile layer can be shown or
hidden by pressing the Shapefile Display toggle button.

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2.) Open the exclusion editing toolbar. Press the Read Exclusion File button. Open
yampa_canyon.xcl to load a set of previously defined exclusion zones.

When you are importing exclusions from another project, you will get prompted with another
dialog box which lists all the exclusions zone in the file. You have the option of selecting a subset
of exclusions. This can be useful if you want to import boundaries or roads from an adjoining
project but not all of the cultural features. For this example, we want to import all of the exclusion
zones in the external file. By default, all of the zones in the list should be selected. If this is not
the case, press the Select All button. Press to OK button to load all of the exclusions into the
project.

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Exit the exclusion editing toolbar.

You should now see the exclusion zones in the Design Window. In this exercise, we are dealing
with an interesting area with multiple survey design challenges. There are several streams, a

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large river, numerous historical sites, and a few bird nesting areas which are off limits for
acquisition equipment.
3.) Lay out an orthogonal survey. Select Layout->Receivers->Lines/Bricks. Fill out the
parameters as shown below to create receiver lines with spacings 110 inline, 880 crossline, 0
degrees inline bearing, and 90 degrees crossline bearing. Also, select the Fill Zone option
and select the Boundary layer and the Survey Boundary exclusion zone to fill. Repeat the
process for the source lines, but swap the bearings such that inline = 90 degrees, crossline =
0 degrees. Also, since we want to offset the source points, make sure that X-Shift and YShift are set to 55 feet. Refer to the following diagram for the parameters.

Your survey should appear as shown in the following diagram. The diagram includes a zoom of
the SW corner of the survey, showing that the sources lines are offset 55 feet inline and crossline
from the receiver lines. Zoom in on your survey to verify that you have the correct layout before
proceeding.

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4.) When you lay out source and receiver lines after defining exclusion zone, the effects of the
exclusion zones are not automatically recalculated. Open the exclusion editing toolbar.

Press the Recalculate Effects button. You will see all of the sources and receivers inside the
exclusion zones turn graywhich indicates the points are now dead. Exit the exclusion editing
toolbar.
Save your database as yampa17 before proceeding.
5.) In the next phase of this exercise, we will review some of the tools for analyzing how much of
our survey is affected by the obstacles in our design area. To do this, we will use the source
and receiver attributes feature. Select Add/Remove Attributes from the attribute drop down
menu.

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Press the Add button and add an integer source attribute named obstructions.

Repeat the process and create an integer receiver attribute named obstructions.
6.) By default, attribute data are initialized with a null value. As a review of spreadsheet
functionality, select Layout->Receiver Spreadsheet. Scroll the spreadsheet horizontally
until you can see the obstructions column. Enter a value of zero in the first row. Click the
left mouse button on the column title (obstructions) to select all of the cells in the column.
Click the right mouse button and select Fill from the menu. Select Fill Range and enter an
Increment of zero to fill the entire obstructions column with zeroes.

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Close the receiver spreadsheet. Select Layout->Source Spreadsheet and repeat the process
with the sources to initialize the obstructions source attribute with zeroes. Close the source
spreadsheet when you are finished.
7.) We are now going to use the exclusion zones to assign source and receiver attributes for the
various types of obstructions. We will use the following assignments:
Obstruction Type
No obstruction
Rivers
Nesting Areas
Archaeological Sites

Attribute Value
0
1
2
3

We have already initialized a majority of the sources and receivers with an attribute value of zero
(no obstruction). Open the receiver editing toolbar. Select the Exclusion Attribute Mode button.

This will open the Exclusion Record Attribute Settings dialog box. This interface allows you to set
an attribute value for all of the receivers that fall inside a particular exclusion or inside any of the
exclusions for a selected layer. In this exercise, we are going to set values for entire exclusion
layers. Fill out the parameters as shown in the following diagram:

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Select Set by Selected Layers. Select Rivers from the Layer list. Select obstructions from the
Attribute list. Set the attribute Value equal to 1. Press the OK button to finish. The dialog box
will close.
We need to repeat this process for nesting and archaeological sites. Press the Exclusions
Attribute Settings button.

This will reopen the Exclusion Record Attribute Settings dialog box. Fill out the parameters as
shown below to set the attribute value equal to 2 for the nesting areas. Press OK to finish.

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Repeat the process a third time to set the attribute value for the archaeological sites. Fill out the
parameters as shown below. Press OK when you are finished.

Exit the receiver editing toolbar. Open the source editing toolbar and repeat the exact same
process for the sources. Assign the same three attribute values for source obstructions that you
assigned for receiver obstructions. Exit the source editing toolbar when you are finished.

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8.) View the attribute data to verify that you have made the assignments properly. Select
Attribute Display from the attribute drop down menu.

Select obstructions for the source and receiver attribute to display.

Press the Attribute Display toggle button in the Design Window to view the attribute data. Zoom
and scroll around your survey to verify that the attributes have been assigned properly. The color
scale should range from 0-3 with most of the sources and receivers showing an attribute value of
zero. Sources and receivers should have a value of one in the rivers, a value of two in the
(purple) nesting areas, and a value of three in the (yellow) archaeological areas. If your attribute
data are not assigned properly, repeat this step of the exercise. Save your database again (same
name) when your attribute data is correct.

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9.) There are several methods for analyzing attribute data. We have already been looking at
attributes in map view. Another method is to use the attribute histograms. Select Utilities>Histogram Window. In the Geometry Histogram Settings dialog box, select the Source
Histogram radio button. Select obstructions from the Attribute drop down list.

Press the OK button to plot the histogram.

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From the plot, we can see that 7814 of our sources have a value of 0.0 (no obstruction). 164 of
the sources are in a river (obstruction value = 1), 167 of the sources are in a nesting area
(obstruction value = 2), and 39 of the sources are in an archaeological site obstruction value = 3).
Spend a moment examining the display options in this window. For example, press the Toggle
Percent Display button to change the display to a percentage histogram.

Press the Histogram Settings button and change the display to a histogram of receiver attribute
data.

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The percentages are similar for the receiver data.

Close the histogram window.

10.) Another method for looking at the distribution of attribute data is to use pie charts. Select
Utilities->Pie Chart Window. The Pie Chart Settings dialog box will appear. You can make
pie charts from source attribute data, receiver attribute data, or bin/midpoint data. For this
exercise, select the Source Attributes radio button. Select obstructions from the Attribute
drop down list. Enter Obstructions in the Title edit box.

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By default, the pie chart window will automatically divide the data into ranges. For this exercise,
we will take control over the plot settings. Select the Detailed Chart radio button. Press the Add
button to define the first pie wedge in our chart. Fill out the Chart Details parameters as follows.
Since we are plotting integer data, set the value range from 0.00-0.99.

Press the Add button three more times to add three more pie wedge definitions. Fill in the
parameters as shown below.

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Press OK in the Pie Chart Settings dialog box to create your chart.

To change the chart to receiver data, press the Pie Chart Settings button.

This will re-open the Pie Chart Settings dialog box. Select the Receiver Attributes radio button
and select obstructions from the Attribute drop down list. The detailed chart settings are
retained from the previous chart, so you can simply press OK to plot the receiver data.
Individual pie charts can be saved as snapshots and re-opened for comparison. When you
select Save Snapshot from the drop down menu, you will be prompted to save your chart with a
unique name.

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Call you snapshot Receiver Obstructions and press OK.

To recall a copy of your saved chart, select Open Snapshot from the drop down window. Select
Receiver Obstructions from the list and your saved chart will open in a new window.

Snapshots can not be edited or modified, but are useful for comparison purposes. Close all of
your pie chart windows before continuing with the exercise.
11.) One of the more time consuming aspects of designing a survey is adapting the sources and
receivers for culture and topography. In this phase of the exercise, we are going use the
automatic repelling feature to move receivers outside of exclusion zones. Zoom in on your
map on the western edge of the design so that you can see the large bend in the river and
one of the (purple) nesting areas. The exact dimensions are not important, but see the
following diagram as a guide:

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The results of this feature will be easier to see if you first change the receiver symbols. Select
Display->Options and change the receiver symbols from plus signs to another symbol, such as
a solid circle. Also, change the dead color for receivers from light gray to orange and press
Apply.
Open the receiver editing toolbar. The first thing to do is to set up a grid for moving receiver
points. Press the Design Grid Options button.

We need to set up an editing grid. Press the Auto Fit button. Next, change the Inline Spacing
and Crossline Spacing to 110 feet if necessary. Verify that the Inline Bearing is set to 0
degrees. Press the OK button when the settings are correct.

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Lets say that you have some guidelines for moving receiver locations. Perhaps you will allow
receiver moves perpendicular to the receiver line in increments of 110 feet, but no move can
exceed half of the receiver line spacing (1/2 of 880 feet = 440 feet). Press the Exclusion
Repulsion Mode button.

Before clicking anywhere in the Design Window, we need to set up our rules for moving receiver
points. Press the Repelling Options button.

This will open the Repelling Options dialog box. The first task is to set the rules for receiver
movement in the Movement Limits group box. Since we are restricting our receiver movement
to the crossline directions, select the Crossline radio button. Since we are restricting our
crossline movement of receiver points to 440 feet, set the Max Grid Points to 4 (4 grid lines @
110 feet = 440 feet). Make sure that the Max Grid Points for the inline direction is set to zero.
Refer to the following diagram for the parameters.

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There are two modes of exclusion repelling. You can manually click on exclusion zones, or you
can automatically repel from all exclusions in a given layer(s). Initially, we are going to use
manual mode. Select the Select Exclusions Manually radio button. Press OK to start moving
receiver locations.
Do not randomly click your mouse in the Design Window. Read the following instructions
carefully as you proceed.
We are going to first move receivers located in the large river. You screen should appear as
follows:

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Click the left mouse button INSIDE the river. All of the receivers inside of this exclusion zone will
now be moved in the crossline direction according to the rules we have set up. Your screen
should now look as follows:

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If you look at the orange receivers, you will see that they have been moved to grid nodes outside
of the river. If you click INSIDE the river a second time, the process will be reversed and the
orange receivers will be moved back to their original positions. This is one of the few undo
functions in MESA. If the movement rules do not produce the desired result, this gives you a
chance to refine the rules without ruining your survey. Please note: The undo function only
works on the last exclusion zone you choose. Once you select another exclusion zone,
you can not undo previous work.
Leave the river exclusion with the receivers repelled outside of the river. Next, click the left
mouse button on the (purple) nesting polygon south of the river. You should see the following
result.

Only the three receivers (noted in the red circle) were repelled from the exclusion zone. Because
we defined the movement rules to limit movement to a maximum of 4 grid lines in the crossline
direction, none of the other receivers in this exclusion zone could be moved and they were left in
their original positions. We would have to change the rules if we want these receivers moved.
Assuming that our movement rules are acceptable, it can be time consuming to click on exclusion
zones one at a time. Press the Repelling Options button again. Leave the movement rules as
they were, but this time, select the Repel From Select Layers radio button. Make sure that three
exclusions layers (Rivers, Nesting, Archaeological Sites) are selected in the listbox. Before
pressing the OK button, verify that your parameters are set as follows:

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After you press OK, all of the receivers that can be moved according to the rules will be moved.
Pan around the display to look at the results of the repelling feature.
Exit receiver editing mode. To complete this phase of the exercise, return to Display->Options
and change the receiver dead color back to light gray.
12.) Repelling the receiver locations does not automatically turn the receivers live. Open the
exclusion editing toolbar and press the Recalculate Effects button. Refer to step #4 of this
exercise if you dont remember how to perform this function.
13.) Your survey design now has the receivers moved to accommodate the obstructions in the
area. Any receivers that had to be moved more than 440 feet in the crossline direction have
are still dead. All of the source points are still in their pre-plot locations. Lets look at our
CMP coverage for this design. Press the Shoot button and define a 16 line by 128 receiver
template. Use Automatic Template Centering with template roll on/off and shoot the
survey. Define your bin grid with 55 x 55 feet bins and a line bearing of 90 degrees. Perform
a full Fold, Offset, and Azimuth fold calculation. Display the fold map. It should appear as
follows:

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As expect, we have some lower-fold holes to fill in due to our dead source locations.
14.) We will perform the same exclusion repelling workflow on the sources (refer to step #11 in
this exercise if necessary). Open the source editing tool. Define a design grid for the source
locations. Press the Auto Fit button. Next, change the Inline Spacing and Crossline
Spacing to 110 feet if necessary. Verify that the Inline Bearing is set to 90 degrees. Press
the OK button when the settings are correct. Refer to the following diagram.

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We will use similar guidelines for moving source locations. We will allow source moves
perpendicular to the source line in increments of 110 feet, but no move can exceed half of the
source line spacing (1/2 of 880 feet = 440 feet). Press the Exclusion Repulsion Mode button.

Before clicking anywhere in the Design Window, we need to set up our rules for moving source
points. Press the Repelling Options button.

We can use the same rules for source movement that we used for receivers. Select the
Crossline radio button. Set the Max Grid Points to 4 (4 grid lines @ 110 feet = 440 feet). Make
sure that the Max Grid Points for the inline direction is set to zero. Select the Repel From
Select Layers radio button. Make sure that three exclusions layers (Rivers, Nesting, and
Archaeological Sites) are selected in the listbox.
As a final step, check the Do Not Allow Move Into Selected Exclusions checkbox. This will
keep sources from moving out of one exclusion zone into another exclusion zone.
Before pressing the OK button, verify that your parameters are set as follows:

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Exit the source editing toolbar.

15.) Repelling the source locations does not automatically turn the sources live. Open the
exclusion editing toolbar and press the Recalculate Effects button. Refer to step #4 of this
exercise if you dont remember how to perform this function.
After performing this calculation, a check of the land survey statistics shows that there are
8184 total source points in your survey. 8120 sources are live and 7814 sources are fired.
This means there are 306 source points that have been moved outside of the exclusion
zones and could now be fired (64 source points did not get moved due to our exclusion
repelling rules).
16.) There are various methods for shooting new source points that have been added to a
design. In this case, we have 306 sources that dont have a template assignment. We need
a method for easily shooting these additions without disturbing the template assignments for
the other source points. The best choice is to set up a source filter. Select Filter Options
from the pull down menu.

Set up a source filter such that Fired is FALSE AND Is Live is TRUE (refer to exercise #15). The
filter settings should appear as follows:

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Press OK to exit filter definition. Press the Filter button in the Design Window to apply the
source filter. Your map should appear as shown in the following diagram:

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17.) With the filter applied, we can now shoot the unfired sources without affecting the template
assignments for the rest of the source points. Press the Shoot button. Use Automatic
Template Centering (use the same 16x128 template) with template roll on/off. Shoot the
unfired sources. After the 306 unfired sources have been fired, toggle off the filter.
18.) Recalculate the fold, offsets, and azimuths. Display the fold map. Although the large
exclusion zones still cause holes in the coverage, the addition of the 306 source have helped
the overall situation. Save your database (yampa17) again at this point in the exercise.

19.) There are several ways to look at offset distribution data in MESA. Select Bin Analysis>Fold Crossplot from the main menu. The Fold Crossplot window will appear. The default
display shows the color-coded fold in discreet offset ranges for the first inline bin line.

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Use the arrow keys to step forward and backward through the bin lines. Press the Bin Line
button to draw a line in the Design Window showing the current bin line. You can also directly
type in the bin line number into the edit box. Type 180 into the edit box and press <CR>.

You can see in the display that the large nesting exclusion zone in the eastern half of the survey
is affecting the near offsets. A more dramatic way to see the missing offsets is to switch to
horizontal slice mode. Press the Horizontal Slice button and step down to the 1500 feet offset
slice. The holes in offset coverage are very apparent.

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Switch back to Inline Bin mode. In addition to looking at coverage in the offset domain, you can
also use this window to visualize how mutes will affect your coverage. Press the Time Mode
button and return to inline bin row 180. Your screen should appear as follows:

The display is now showing the fold as a function of time. Since we dont have any mute
functions defined, the fold is constant for all time steps. We do see the same reduction in fold
between bins 300-440 due to the missing near offsets.
Press the Mute Functions button. The Mute Functions window will appear.

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Press the First Break Mute button (second from left). A dialog box will appear for entering a first
break mute. Enter the following Time/Offset pair (0 ms, 0 ft) and press the Add button. Enter
two more Time/Offset pairs (1000 ms, 1000 ft) and (2000 ms, 4000 ft). Your mute function
should appear as follows:

Press the OK button. The mute function should now be displayed in the window.

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Close the mute function window. The mute will not be immediately applied to the data in the fold
crossplot. Use the arrow keys to step forward one bin line to see the mute applied to the fold plot
for inline bin line 181 as shown below.

As expected, the missing offsets also manifest themselves as significant reductions in coverage
when combined with a first break mute. Spend a few moments analyzing the time domain fold
crossplot in the crossline and horizontal slice domains. Close the fold crossplot before moving to
the next step in the exercise.

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20.) It is quite common to test various template sizes and shapes during the design process. For
simple surveys, it is an easy matter to unshoot the survey and reshoot it with a different
template. But what about situations where the shooting was difficult or the template
information had to be imported and you dont want to keep repeating the shooting process?
How do you keep multiple sets of template assignments in a single design project? Select
Shoot Configuration Manager from the drop down menu.

The Shoot Configuration Manager window will appear. The 16x128 templates used during this
project as stored as the shooting configuration named Default in the listbox.

Lets say that we decide the long offsets in our original shooting template might not be necessary
and we want to reshoot the survey with circular templates instead. Press the Add New Shoot
Config button. When prompted to enter a name for the new shooting configuration, enter
Circular. The new entry will appear in the list box. Select Circular from the list and press the
OK button.

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This shooting configuration will now be applied to the survey. Since we havent shot the survey
yet for this configuration, all of the sources in the Design Window should have turned back to their
unfired color (black by default).

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Press the Shoot button. Define circular templates with a 0-7000 feet offset range and re-shoot
the survey. After shooting is finished, select Utilities->Edit Templates to verify the template
assignments.

Exit edit templates mode. Perform another fold calculation to see the results of this new shooting
template. In the Fold Calculation dialog box, create a Named Fold Calculation and name the
result yampa17 circular. See the following diagram for the parameters.

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Look at the fold map in the Design Window.

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As expected, the coverage is similar to the rectangular templates, but the overall fold is lower
since we reduced the longer offsets. Select Bin Analysis->Fold Compare. Difference the
Default Mesa Fold Calculation with yampa17 circular and store the result in Fold difference.
Redisplay the fold map to show the difference map.

To change back to the rectangular templates, re-open the Shoot Configuration Manager and
select the Default templates again. Return to Utilities->Edit Templates and verify that the
original rectangular templates have been restored. Exit Edit Templates to continue the exercise.

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Note: Fold calculations are not automatically tied to shooting configurations. You should use
named fold calculations when using multiple shooting configurationsor you should recalculate
the fold every time you switch shooting configurations.
21.) MESA can be used for functions beyond traditional survey design. It can also be used for
pre-plot vs. post plot comparison. It can be used as a production tracking tool. It can also be
used as a repository for auxiliary information related to the project. Lets say you are using
MESA to keep track of information gathered while scouting the project area. As we have
seen, there are some archaeological sites in this area. Zoom in on a particular polygonal
archaeological exclusion zone (yellow) in the northern region of the project. See the following
map.

Suppose this site is so sensitive that you need to provide special instructions that not only is
equipment not allowed, foot and vehicle traffic from the crew is also prohibited. You can use the
Note feature to keep track of these restrictions. Select Create Note from the drop down menu.

Notes are tied to map locations. Click the left mouse button inside of the yellow polygon
exclusion zone representing the archaeological site. The Note dialog box will appear. Notes
need to have a unique Topic and unique text for the note. You also need to provide a Category
for the note (used for searching).

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Select <New Category> from the Category drop down list. You will be prompted for a category
name. Enter Anasazi. Press OK.

Fill in a Topic and additional text for the note. The following diagram shows an example of the
type of information you might store. For this exercise, it is not necessary to enter all of the note
text (but you need to enter something). Do not press OK yet.

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Along with the text for the note, you can also attach external files to the notes. Press the
Attachments button. The Manage Attachments dialog box will appear. Press the Add button. In
the Add Attachment dialog box that appears, press the Add File button. Open the file
yampa_arch_site.jpg. For the Attachment Description, enter photo of sunrise house.

Press OK to close the Add Attachment dialog box. The attached file will now be listed in the
Manage Attachments list box. Press Done to close the Manage Attachments dialog box. Press
OK to close the Note.
A default symbol (triangle) will now appear on the map. You are still in Create Note mode, so
return to the Note drop down menu and uncheck Create Note to exit this mode of operation.

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Notes are objects that can be displayed and recalled. Press the Project Notes button in the
Design Window to toggle the note display on and off. Select Note Settings from the drop down
menu to label the notes in the Design Window. Check Show Note Topics and press OK.

You should now the label Sunrise House Dwelling attached to the note. To recall a note, change
the Find Record settings to Notes.

Hold down the <shift> key and click the left mouse button on the symbol representing your note.
The note will appear. Press the Attachments button in the Manage Attachments dialog box.

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Double-click on the attachment (yampa_arch_site,jpg) in the list box. If you have file associations
for JPEG files set up on your computer, the picture will automatically load in the assigned
application.

You may load any type of attachments into the note database. If you store spreadsheets or text
documents, those files will also auto-load if you have the file associations defined.
Close all of the note-related dialog boxes before continuing with the exercise.
22.) The final steps in this exercise deal with some recently-added output formats that can assist
in transferring your project to other mapping systems. Select Output-Shapefile Output. You
will be presented with a simple interface for exporting sources, receivers, and exclusion
zones to a Shapefile.

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Select all three checkboxes. Press OK. You will be prompted for three file names. Accept the
default file names (yampa17Sources.shp, yampa17Receivers.shp, and yampa17Exclusions.shp).
To verify the output, open the Shapefile Manager (refer to step #1 in this exercise). Press the
Add Files button and load the files yampa17Sources.shp and yampa17Receivers.shp. Press
the OK button to close the Shapefile Manager window. In the Design Window, toggle off the
source and receiver display so you can see the sources and receivers from the Shapefile.

We use a default black plus sign for our default symbol in the Shapefile output. If you wish to
change the display, return to the Shapefile Manager and change the symbol, size, and color for
the sources and receivers.

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23.) MESA designs can also be output to KMZ format for use in the application Google Earth.
Select Output->KMZ Output. You will be prompted with the following interface.

You have the option of exporting source locations, receiver locations, exclusion zones, the default
fold map, and background raster images to the KMZ file. For this exercise, select Sources,
Receivers, and Exclusions.
Data in the KMZ file are stored in latitudes and longitudes, so you need to define a map
projection. Press the Change Coordinate System button. The Map Projection dialog box will
appear.

Set the Projection to US State Plane. Set the Zone to CO N 0501. Set the Datum/Ellipsoid
to NAD27. Press OK to close this dialog box. The new coordinate system will appear in the

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KMZ Output dialog box. Press OK to proceed. When prompted, name the output file
yampa17.kmz.
If you do not have Google Earth installed on your computer, the exercise is finished at this point.
If you have Google Earth on your computer, open a Windows Explorer window and find
yampa17.kmz on your computer. Double-click on this file and the data will automatically load into
Google Earth (provided you have the file associations set up).

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Glossary of Terms
Bin

The fundamental sub-surface sampling interval, typically the inline receiver

spacing in width and the inline source spacing in height. Source-receiver
midpoints that fall in this area are considered to be from the same common
midpoint and contribute to the fold count.

Box

In a regular orthogonal 3D survey this is defined by the area bounded by two

adjacent source lines and two adjacent receiver lines and represents the smallest
area of a survey which defines all statistics.

CMP

Common midpoint, or the point halfway between the source and receiver.

CMP bin

A small square or rectangular area often of width equal to half receiver spacing (RI)
and length of half source spacing (SI). All midpoints which lie inside this area belong
to the same common midpoint, will be midpoint stacked and will therefore contribute
to the fold.

CRP

Common reflection point, or the point on a subsurface model horizon that reflects
from a source to a receiver.

Contour File

GMGs contour file format (.cyr), which is created in GMG Image from an ASCII
file of X,Y, and attribute values.

Exclusion
Zone

A restrictive zone within a survey. This can include areas where no sources,
receivers, and/or midpoint information can be recorded. Examples include wells,
pipelines, buildings, and rivers.

Fold

The number of midpoints that fall within a CMP bin. For simple surveys with square
or rectangular bins (SI/2 by RI/2), 3D fold can be calculated from the inline and xline fold as given by
inline fold = receiver line length / 2 * source interval
x-line fold = number of receiver lines / 2
fold = inline fold * crossline fold
For an irregular survey with rectangular bins:
nominal fold = Number of sources/Km2 * Number channels * bin size (in Km2)

GeoReferencing

A procedure performed by GMG Image which defines the coordinates for each
pixel in a graphic image, based on the pixel scale of the image and the
coordinate of the upper left pixel of the image.

GMG Image

A utility program which is included with Green Mountain Geophysics software

which geo-references and reformats graphics files( .tif and .dxf, for example) and
creates contoured files of attributes (surface or subsurface elevations, for
example).

Halo

(also known as Taper) Additional area of a survey required to build up full fold.

Layer File

GMGs image file format (.lyr), the geo-referenced output of GMG Image. This
graphics file format can be used by all of GMGs programs.

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Migration
Aperature

The width of the survey which must be added to allow migration of dipping events
toward the survey edges.

Prospect

Geophysical zone of interest, where survey model computations are addressed.

Also referred to as the target. This generally refers to the top of the economic
formation.

Receiver Line A line along which receivers are positioned at regular intervals. The distance
between adjacent receiver groups is the inline distance (RI) and the distance
between adjacent lines the crossline interval (RLI).
Receiver
Patch

A pattern of live receivers for a given source point.

Script File

This file holds shooting information for a specific survey. The script defines which
receivers are active for any given source point. Several recording systems can
be operated using script files.

Source Line

A line along which sources are positioned at regular locations. The distance
between adjacent sources is the inline spacing (SI) and the distance between
adjacent lines the crossline spacing (SLI).

Template

The template defines the live set of receivers for any given source point.

Unit Bin Cell

This is the smallest group of bins for a survey design which is not redundant for a
specific midpoint diagnostic. The dimensions of the unit bin cell are dependent
on the diagnostic.

Unit Template A set of live receivers with an associated set of sources fired into the set. The
unit template is usually repeated spatially to form a complete survey or swath
and is one of the layout methods available in MESA.
Vector File

GMG Image creates a vector file (.vyr) from an input file such as a .dxf file. The
vector file can then be loading into any GMG software.

Xmin

The largest minimum offset within a bin within the full fold portion of the survey. The
size of Xmin defines the depth of the shallowest recorded event.

Xmax

The largest recorded offset in a bin. Xmax is usually the half diagonal of the patch,
but can be longer with extended overlap between patches.

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