High frequency ghost cavitation - a comparison of two seismic air-gun arrays using numerical modeling

Abstract

Ghost cavitation is probably the mechanism behind the majority of high frequencies (above 5 kHz) generated by seismic air-gun arrays. Such high frequencies are less important in seismic reflection imaging. High frequency sound might impact marine fauna and particularly marine mammals. In this paper the array signatures and high frequency ghost cavitation signals for two different arrays are simulated using numerical modelling. It is observed that one array has slightly more (20%) energy within the seismic frequency band (1-100 Hz) but emits significantly more energy (150%) for frequencies above 5 kHz.