Focal transformation, an imaging concept for signal restoration and noise removal

Interpolation of data beyond aliasing limits and removal of noise that occurs within the seismic bandwidth are still important problems in seismic processing. The focal transform is introduced as a promising tool in data interpolation and noise removal, allowing the incorporation of macroinformation about the involved wavefields. From a physical point of view, the principal action of the forward focal operator is removing the spatial phase of the signal content from the input data, and the inverse focal operator restores what the forward operator has removed. The strength of the method is that in the transformed domain, the focused signals at the focal area can be separated from the dispersed noise away from the focal area. Applications of particular interest in preprocessing are interpolation of missing offsets and reconstruction of signal beyond aliasing. The latter can be seen as the removal of aliasing noise.