The design of optimized broadband vibroseis sweeps

There is currently much work being done to improve the low-frequency content of land vibroseis data. Although techniques exist for designing sweeps that can extend the bandwidth down to as low as 1 Hz, the inclusion of these frequencies comes at considerable cost, either in the time taken to acquire a sweep or in the reduction of the total sweep energy. We describe the limitations on vibrator performance and how those limitations can be overcome using specialized sweep-design techniques. Perhaps more importantly, we describe how such sweeps can be optimized in terms of maximizing their energy content and verifying their performance.