The evaluation of alternatives to pre-acquisition surveying for land seismic surveys

Accurate positioning for sources and receivers is a fundamental requirement for land seismic survey acquisition. The introduction of `stake-less navigation' systems, where the vibrator driver uses a GPS guided display to navigate into position, has removed the need for source point surveying, but receiver positioning is still required. Depending on the receiver spacing this tends to take place either on foot or from a vehicle. The latest generation of self-contained recording nodes include a GPS positioning capability that offers the potential to remove the need to accurately survey receiver positions prior to node planting. There remains a requirement for accurate height, however, that standard GPS devices are not capable of meeting. Airborne Light Detection And Ranging (LiDAR) technology is now well developed and offers a simple way to measure ground elevation across large areas which may meet this requirement. In this paper we use results from a recent high-density 3D survey to determine the accuracy of node position and LiDAR altitude measurements. Using these results we determine if these measurements are capable of negating the requirement for accurate surveying prior to layout, and how the layout process might change as a result.