Attenuation of random noise using denoising convolutional neural networks

Random noise often contaminates seismic data and reduces its signal-to-noise ratio. Therefore, the removal of random noise has been an essential step in seismic data processing. The f-x predictive filtering method is one of the most widely used methods in suppressing random noise. However, when the subsurface structure becomes complex, this method suffers from higher prediction errors owing to the large number of different dip components that need to be predicted. Here, we used a denoising convolutional neural network (DnCNN) algorithm to attenuate random noise in seismic data. This method does not assume the linearity and stationarity of the signal in the conventional f-x domain prediction technique, and it involves creating a set of training data that are obtained by data processing, feeding the neural network with the training data obtained, and deep network learning and training. During deep network learning and training, the activation function and batch normalization are used to solve the gradient vanishing and gradient explosion problems, and the residual learning technique is used to improve the calculation precision, respectively. After finishing deep network learning and training, the network will have the ability to separate the residual image from the seismic data with noise. Then, clean images can be obtained by subtracting the residual image from the raw data with noise. Tests on the synthetic and real data demonstrate that the DnCNN algorithm is very effective for random noise attenuation in seismic data.