Three/four dimensional imaging for big oilfield data

Abstract

Oilfield and wellbore data may include geophone data (seismic) and airborne surveys such as microseep data, as well as fiber optic measurements collected utilizing a distributed sensing system. Continuous monitoring of various oilfield and wellbore properties, such as temperature, pressure, Bragg gradient, acoustic, and strain, and the like, may generate a large volume of data, possibly spanning into several terabytes. Embodiments of the present invention provide techniques for visualizing a large volume of such measurements taken in a oilfield or wellbore without down-sampling measurement data.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A method of storing measurements taken in an oilfield or wellbore, the method comprising:
 receiving the measurements as raw data, wherein the raw data is acquired by an oilfield measurement or wellbore monitoring device;   converting the raw data to image rasters, wherein the converting does not comprise down-sampling the raw data;   assigning a unique identifier (UID) to each image raster; and   storing the image rasters along with the assigned UIDs.   
     
     
         2 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising:
 retrieving, by UID, one of the stored image rasters;   converting the retrieved image raster to an image format suitable for rendering to a display; and   displaying a rendering of the converted image raster on the display screen.   
     
     
         3 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the raw data is converted to the image rasters according to a user-specified color map. 
     
     
         4 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the image rasters are stored in order of ascending or descending UID. 
     
     
         5 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein converting the raw data to the image rasters includes normalizing the raw data values to a range of color values. 
     
     
         6 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein each image raster is generated from a stack of trace images, each of the trace images in the stack being associated with a given inline or xline value. 
     
     
         7 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the image rasters are stored in a binary storage format. 
     
     
         8 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising, assigning UIDs to the raw data, wherein the UIDs assigned to the raw data are separately stored in a relational database from the raw data, and wherein the raw data is queried using the UIDs assigned to the raw data without reading the raw data. 
     
     
         9 . The method of  claim 8 , wherein pointers to locations of the raw data are stored along with the assigned UIDs, and wherein the raw data is retrieved based on locations indicated by the pointers. 
     
     
         10 . A non-transitory computer-readable storage media storing instructions, which when executed by a computer system, perform operations for storing measurements taken in an oilfield or wellbore, the operations comprising:
 receiving the measurements as raw data, wherein the raw data is acquired by an oilfield measurement or wellbore monitoring device;   converting the raw data to image rasters, wherein the converting does not comprise down-sampling the raw data;   assigning a unique identifier (UID) to each image raster; and   storing the image rasters along with the assigned UIDs.   
     
     
         11 . The non-transitory computer-readable storage media of  claim 10 , the operations further comprising:
 retrieving, by UID, one of the stored image rasters;   converting the retrieved image raster to an image format suitable for rendering to a display; and   displaying a rendering of the converted image raster on the display screen.   
     
     
         12 . The non-transitory computer-readable storage media of  claim 10 , wherein the raw data is converted to the image rasters according to a user-specified color map. 
     
     
         13 . The non-transitory computer-readable storage media of  claim 10 , wherein the image rasters are stored in order of ascending or descending UID. 
     
     
         14 . The non-transitory computer-readable storage media of  claim 10 , wherein converting the raw data to the image rasters includes normalizing the raw data values to a range of color values. 
     
     
         15 . The non-transitory computer-readable storage media of  claim 10 , wherein each image raster is generated from a stack of trace images, each of the trace images in the stack being associated with a given inline or xline value. 
     
     
         16 . The non-transitory computer-readable storage media of  claim 10 , wherein the image rasters are stored in a binary storage format. 
     
     
         17 . The non-transitory computer-readable storage media of  claim 10 , further comprising, assigning UIDs to the raw data, wherein the UIDs assigned to the raw data are separately stored in a relational database from the raw data, and wherein the raw data is queried using the UIDs assigned to the raw data without reading the raw data. 
     
     
         18 . The non-transitory computer-readable storage media of  claim 17 , wherein pointers to locations of the raw data are stored along with the assigned UIDs, and wherein the raw data is retrieved based on locations indicated by the pointers. 
     
     
         19 . A system, comprising:
 a processor; and   a memory, wherein the memory includes an application program configured to perform operations for storing measurements taken in an oilfield or wellbore, the operations comprising:   receiving the measurements as raw data, wherein the raw data is acquired by an oilfield measurement or wellbore monitoring device;   converting the raw data to image rasters, wherein the converting does not comprise down-sampling the raw data;   assigning a unique identifier (UID) to each image raster; and   storing the image rasters along with the assigned UIDs.   
     
     
         20 . The system of  claim 19 , the operations further comprising:
 retrieving, by UID, one of the stored image rasters;   converting the retrieved image raster to an image format suitable for rendering to a display; and   displaying a rendering of the converted image raster on the display screen.