USGS
File Format



Seismic Data Format

The SEG-Y files on this CD-ROM conform to the SEG-Y standard format (Barry and others, 1975) and were created using a C program, Qmipstosegy (the source code is found in /bin on this CD-ROM) that converts the ISIS QMIPS data format to SEG-Y. The SEG-Y file output from Qmipstosegy consists of the following:


Example of a 3200-byte EBCDIC reel identification header created with Qmipstosegy
 

C 1 CLIENT U.S.G.S. COMPANY WHFC CREW NO 0
C 2 LINE l1f1. AREA South Carolina MAP ID None
C 3 REEL NO 1 DAY-START OF REEL 283 YEAR 1999 OBSERVER
C 4 INSTRUMENT: Triton MODEL ISIS SERIAL NO
C 5 DATA TRACES/RECORD 1 AUXILIARY TRACES/RECORD CDP FOLD
C 6 SAMPLE INTERVAL 263 SAMPLES/TRACE 1055 BITS/IN BYTES/SAMPLE 2
C 7 RECORDING FORMAT 3 FORMAT THIS REEL MEASUREMENT SYSTEM
C 8 SAMPLE CODE: Short Integers
C 9 GAIN TYPE:
C10 FILTERS: ALIAS HZ NOTCH HZ BAND HZ SLOPE DB/OCT
C11 SOURCE: NUMBER/POINT POINT INTERVAL
C12 PATTERN: LENGTH WIDTH
C13 SWEEP: HZ HZ LENGTH 278 MS CHANNEL NO TYPE
C14 TAPER: MS MS TYPE
C15 SPREAD:
C16 GEOPHONES:
C17 PATTERN:
C18 TRACES SORTED BY: RECORD
C19 AMPLITUDE RECOVERY:
C20 MAP PROJECTION
C21 PROCESSING:
C22 ACOUSTIC SOURCE: SIS-1000 FIRE RATE: 0.27 SECS
C23
C24
C25
C26
C27
C28
C29
C30
C31
C32
C33
C34
C35
C36
C37
C38
C39
C40 END EBCDIC

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The SEG-Y binary reel identification header. The values in red are assigned in the SEG-Y output from Qmipstosegy.
 

Byte Numbers  Header Value Description
3201 - 3204  Job identification number.
3205 - 3208  Line number.
3209 - 3212  Reel number.
3213 - 3214  Number of data traces per record.
3215 - 3216  Number of auxiliary traces per record.
3217 - 3218  Sample interval, microseconds, this file (reel).
3219 - 3220  Sample interval, microseconds, original field recording.
3221 - 3222  Number of samples per data trace, this file (reel).
3223 - 3224  Number of samples per data trace, original field recording.
3225 - 3226  Data sample format code: 1 = floating point (4 bytes) 2 = fixed point (4 bytes) 3 = fixed point (2 bytes) 4 = fixed point with gain code (4 bytes).
3227 - 3228  CDP fold.
3229 - 3230  Trace sorting code: 1 = as recorded (no) sorting) 2 = CDP ensemble 3 = single fold continuous profile 4 = horizontally stacked
3231 - 3232  Vertical sum code: 1 = no sum 2 = two sum ... N = N sum (N = 32,767)
3233 - 3234  Sweep frequency at start.
3235 - 3236  Sweep frequency at end.
3237 - 3238  Sweep length, ms.
3239 - 3240  Sweep type code: 1 = linear 2 = parabolic 3 = exponential 4 = other
3241 - 3242  Trace number of sweep channel.
3243 - 3244  Sweep trace taper length, ms, at start if tapered.
3245 - 3246  Sweep trace taper length, ms, at end.
3247 - 3248  Taper type: 1 = linear 2 = cos 3 = other
3249 - 3250  Correlated data traces: 1 = no 2 = yes
3251 - 3252  Binary gain recovered: 1 = yes 2 = no
3253 - 3254  Amplitude recovery method: 1 = none 2 = spherical divergence 3 = AGC 4 = other
3255 - 3256  Measurement system: 1 = meters 2 = feet
3257 - 3258  Impulse signal: 1 = Upward = negative number. 2 = Upward = positive number.
3259 - 3260  Vibratory polarity code - seismic signal lags pilot signal by: 1 = 337.5 - 22.5 degrees 2 = 22.5 - 67.5 degrees 3 = 67.5 - 112.5 degrees 4 = 112.5 - 157.5 degrees 5 = 157.5 - 202.5 degrees 6 = 202.5 - 247.5 degrees

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The SEG-Y defined 240-byte trace identification header values. The values in red are assigned in the SEG-Y output from Qmipstosegy.
 

Byte Numbers 

Header Value Description

1 - 4 

Trace sequence number within line.

5 - 8 

Trace sequence number within file (reel)

9 - 12 

Original field record number

13 - 16 

Trace number within original field record

17 - 20 

Energy source point number.

21 - 24 

CDP ensemble number.

25 - 28 

Trace number within the CDP ensemble.

29 - 30 

Trace identification code: 1 = seismic data

31 - 32 

Number of vertically summed traces yielding this trace

33 - 34 

Number of horizontally stacked traces yielding this trace

35 - 36 

Data use: 1 = production 2 = test

37 - 40 

Distance from source point to receiver group.

41 - 44 

Receiver group elevation - above sea level are positive, below sea level are   negative.

45 - 48 

Surface elevation at source.

49 - 52 

Source depth below surface (positive number).

53 - 56 

Datum elevation at receiver group.

57 - 60 

Datum elevation at source.

61 - 64 

Water depth at source (this is the Fish depth below the sea surface in meters*10)

65 - 68 

Water depth at group.

69 - 70 

Scalar to be applied to all elevations & depths, specified in bytes 41 - 68 to give the real value. Scalar = 1, +/-10, +/-100, +/-1000, or +/-10,000. If positive, scalar is used as a multiplier; if negative, scalar is used as a divisor.

71 - 72 

Scalar to be applied to all coordinate specified in bytes 73 - 88 to give the real value. Scalar = 1, +/-10, +/-100, +/-1000, or +/-10,000. If  positive, scalar is used as a multiplier; if negative, scalar is used as a divisor.

73 - 76 

Source coordinate - X. UTM Easting coordinate

77 - 80 

Source coordinate - Y. UTM Northing coordinate

81 - 84 

Group coordinate - X. UTM Easting coordinate

85 - 88 

Group coordinate - Y. UTM Northing coordinate

89 - 90 

Coordinate units: 1 = length (meters or feet) 2 = seconds of arc

91 - 92 

weathering velocity.

93 - 94 

Subweathering velocity.

95 - 96 

Uphole time at source.

97 - 98 

Uphole time at group.

99 - 100 

Source static correction.

101 - 102 

Group static correction.

103 - 104 

Total static applied.

105 - 106 

Lag time A. Time in ms between end of 240-byte trace identification header  and time break. positive if time break occurs after end of header, negative if time break occurs before end of header. Time break is defined as the initiation pulse which may be recorded on an auxiliary trace or as otherwise specified by the recording system. 

107 - 108 

Lag time B. Time in ms between the time break and positive or negative.

109 - 110 

Delay recording time. Time in ms between initiation time of energy source and  time when recording of data samples begins.

111 - 112 

Mute time - start.

113 - 114 

Mute time - end.

115 - 116 

Number of samples in this trace.

117 - 118 

Sample interval, in microseconds, for this trace.

119 - 120 

Gain type of field instruments: 1 = fixed, 2 = binary, 3 = floating point, 4 = ---  N = optional use

121 - 122 

Instrument gain constant.

123 - 124 

Instrument early or initial gain (db).

125 - 126 

Correlated: 1 = no 2 = yes

127 - 128 

Sweep frequency at start.

129 - 130 

Sweep frequency at end.

131 - 132 

Sweep length, ms.

133 - 134 

Sweep type: 1 = linear 2 = parabolic 3 = exponential 4 = other

135 - 136 

Sweep trace taper length at start, ms.

137 - 138 

Sweep trace taper length at end, ms.

139 - 140 

Taper type: 1 = linear 2 = cos 3 = other

141 - 142 

Alias filter frequency.

143 - 144 

Alias filter slope.

145 - 146 

Notch filter frequency.

147 - 148 

Notch filter slope.

149 - 150 

Low cut frequency.

151 - 152 

High cut frequency.

153 - 154 

Low cut slope.

155 - 156 

High cut slope.

157 - 158 

Year data recorded (four digit integer).

159 - 160 

Day of year.

161 - 162 

Hour of day (24 hour clock).

163 - 164 

Minute of hour.

165 - 166 

Second of minute.

167 - 168 

Time basis code: 1 = local 2 = GMT 3 = other

169 - 170 

Trace weighting factor - defined as 2-N volts for the least significant bit. (N=0,  1,...,32,767)

171 - 172 

Geophone group number of roll switch position one.

173 - 174 

Geophone group number of trace number one within original field record.

175 - 176 

Geophone group number of last trace within original field record.

177 - 178 

Gape size (total number of groups dropped).

179 - 180 

Overtravel associated with taper at beginning or end of line: 1 = down (or behind) 2 = up (or ahead)

181 - 184 Floating point fish depth in meters

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References

Barry, R.M., Cavers, D.A., and Kneale, C.W., 1975, Recommended standards for digital tape formats, Geophysics, v. 40, p. 344-352