Editorial

A special issue of the Canadian Journal of Exploration Geophysics (CJEG) has been published to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the CSEG, which was celebrated last month. To mark this milestone, we invited geophysicists across the industry to share their forward-looking perspectives in response to two key questions. The collected responses form the lead article in this commemorative issue. In addition, four feature articles have been included, showcasing innovative research and applied geophysical techniques.

The first feature article entitled ‘Early-stage Bioenergy with Carbon Capture and Storage seismic case study in Saskatchewan, Canada’ by Hunt et al., presents a case study of an early-stage onshore BECCS (Bioenergy with Carbon Capture and Storage) project in Saskatchewan, Canada. The project faced several challenges, including a lack of well and sonic log data, shallow storage depth, and site-specific geological risks related to the Deadwood (DDWD) formation. The authors employed a creative, capital efficient, ad-hoc method to generate pseudo-sonic and synthetic seismic models. These models and reprocessed 2D seismic successfully supported risk assessment and suggested a site relocation, improving the Initial Characterization process despite regulatory and technical hurdles.

In the second article, ‘Anisotropic Direct Probabilistic Inversion for unconventional tight reservoirs’, Goodway et al. address the limitations of standard AVO inversion in characterizing unconventional tight reservoirs, where key rock properties (e.g., porosity, mineralogy, TOC, fractures, stress) critical to hydraulic fracturing are often ambiguously estimated due to non-uniqueness. To improve accuracy, the authors propose integrating geological knowledge and rock physics into a Bayesian probabilistic framework. This approach, called VTI Direct Probabilistic Inversion, incorporates prior facies models and vertical transverse isotropy, enabling more reliable uncertainty quantification and improved seismic interpretation.

The third article, ‘Computation frameworks for modelling, migration and inversion’, by Trad et al., explores how modern computing advances are reshaping scientific geophysics. With this the traditional, low-level development of migration and inversion algorithms now competes with modern frameworks that streamline computation and emphasize scientific problem-solving. While these newer tools can lose effectiveness as complexity grows, they offer innovative alternatives. This paper reviews current trends in modeling, Reverse Time Migration (RTM), and Full Waveform Inversion (FWI), comparing traditional open-source frameworks with emerging methods like Devito, Python-based approaches, physics-informed neural networks (PINNs), neural operators, and generative AI techniques—particularly in advancing 3D modeling and FWI.

Finally, Sadeghi et al., in their article entitled, ‘Double projection seismic data interpolation algorithm’, introduce an algorithm for reconstructing missing seismic traces, essential for accurate processing and interpretation. The method combines hard thresholding (to enforce sparsity in the transform domain) with Projection Onto Convex Sets (POCS) (to reintegrate observed data). It uses the N-dimensional Discrete Cosine Transform (ND-DCT), which offers fast, real-valued sparse representations, especially effective for high-dimensional data. The algorithm does not require windowing and guarantees convergence despite the non-convexity of hard thresholding. Tests on both synthetic data and real 2D/3D seismic datasets (from Alaska and Wyoming) show strong performance in signal recovery.

We hope that readers find the articles interesting and informative, as they represent some of the latest reports on different aspects of geophysics.

Satinder Chopra

Lee Hunt

Mauricio Sacchi