Hybrid multiplicative time-reversal imaging: Application to Marcellus shale microseismic data

We present a field application of the hybrid multiplicative time-reversal imaging (HyM-TRI) algorithm, for automatically tracking the spatio-temporal distribution of many microseismic events. HyM-TRI back propagates the data traces from groups of receivers (in space and time) as receiver wavefields, multiplies receiver wavefields between all groups, and applies a causal integration over time to obtain a source evolution image. Using field data examples, we demonstrate the capability of the HyM-TRI technique to image the spatio-temporal sequence of asynchronous microseismic events which poses a challenge to standard time-reversal imaging methods. Moreover, the HyM-TRI technique is robust enough to produce a high-resolution image of the source in the presence of noise. The aperture of the 2D receiver array (azimuth coverage in 3D) with respect to the microseismic source area plays an important role on the horizontal and vertical resolution of the source image.