Estimation of Q-factor for spectral whitening

Estimation of the Q-factor is discussed along with applications using synthetic and real data sets. An intrinsic damping operator is used to introduce different methods for estimating the Q-factor. These methods have for their basis constant Q-factor panels, and a Q-filter operator determined by the Wiener filtering approach. In addition to the Q-panel a quantitative symmetry search in the crosscorrelation function is applied to determine Q. In the case of the Wiener Q-filter operator the log-amplitude spectra are used to determine the value of Q. Synthetic and real data examples indicate that Q can be estimated from shot and common-mid-point data gathers. In addition to determining Q, a Q-correction is introduced to whiten the data before stacking for greater resolution. The increase in resolution is demonstrated on data before and after stack.