Application of sparse time-frequency decomposition to seismic data

The Gabor and S transforms are frequently used in time-frequency decomposition methods. Constrained by the uncertainty principle, both transforms produce low-resolution time-frequency decomposition results in the time and frequency domains. To improve the resolution of the time-frequency decomposition results, we use the instantaneous frequency distribution function (IFDF) to express the seismic signal. When the instantaneous frequencies of the nonstationary signal satisfy the requirements of the uncertainty principle, the support of IFDF is just the support of the amplitude ridges in the signal obtained using the short-time Fourier transform. Based on this feature, we propose a new iteration algorithm to achieve the sparse time-frequency decomposition of the signal. The iteration algorithm uses the support of the amplitude ridges of the residual signal obtained with the short-time Fourier transform to update the time-frequency components of the signal. The summation of the updated time-frequency components in each iteration is the result of the sparse time-frequency decomposition. Numerical examples show that the proposed method improves the resolution of the time-frequency decomposition results and the accuracy of the analysis of the nonstationary signal. We also use the proposed method to attenuate the ground roll of field seismic data with good results.