Seismic data format software
g-Platform loads seismic data in many different formats — SEG-Y, MiniSEED and ZGY read directly, SEG-D, SEG-B, SEG-2 and SEG-RODE converted on the way in — and takes its geometry from SPS, UKOOA P1/90, SEG-P1, OGP/IOGP P1/11, observer logs or the trace headers themselves. If your data arrives in a format that is not on the list yet, tell us and our development team will add it.
Everything the field wrote, read into one format.
SEG-Y, MiniSEED and ZGY are read straight in. The field formats are converted first — into SEG-Y, or directly into g-Platform's internal format — so whatever the survey was recorded on, the sequence downstream sees one thing.
The exchange standard, and the shape of g-Platform's own trace headers — the internal header format is standard SEG-Y revision 1.0. Reading is more than opening the file: header fields can be adjusted with mathematical expressions, traces can be selected by trace type, offsets recalculated from the coordinates rather than trusted as recorded, and a small file loaded whole into memory to be used as a gather input.
What comes off the field tape. Every revision is covered, from the 1980 original through 1.0, 2.0, 2.1 and 3.0 to the current 3.1, along with the demultiplexed data formats they define. A set of SEG-D files is read and converted into a single SEG-Y — or straight into the internal format — and the headers can be inspected before the conversion is run. SEG-D written by wireless geophone systems is read on the same route.
One of the first standardised digital formats, developed for magnetic-tape recording in the 1960s and 70s and the predecessor of SEG-Y. Converted forward so a vintage survey reprocesses alongside everything else.
The lightweight PC-oriented format introduced in the late 1980s, with ASCII headers and trace-level metadata — the usual output of engineering geophysics, refraction and MASW acquisition systems. Converted to SEG-Y on the way in.
Record Oriented Data Encapsulation, built on RP66 to hold datasets of mixed formats and record lengths in one envelope. The parser unpacks the container into a directory, writing each encapsulated file back out under its own original extension.
The compact, waveform-only relative of SEED, and what passive and microseismic recording usually arrives in — downhole geophones, permanent broadband networks, temporary stations. Fixed-length records and Steim compression keep continuous recording small. Station metadata is not in the file: it travels separately, as Dataless SEED, StationXML or RESP.
Schlumberger's 3D volume format, the one Petrel and Studio hold interpretation data in. Bricked storage and geometry embedded in the file — inline and crossline ranges, coordinate reference system, sampling, corner points — are what let it slice faster than SEG-Y. Read in the time, depth or frequency domain; it is an interpretation format rather than a processing one.
80.XX is read as well, and the list is not meant to be closed. If your data is in a format g-Platform does not read yet, tell us: adding one is normal work here rather than a special request, and it is usually done in a very short time.
Where the sources and receivers actually were.
Coordinates arrive in their own files, on their own standards, and usually from someone other than whoever produced the seismic. Each of these is read into g-Platform's internal geometry tables, where the assignment step merges it into the trace headers.
The Seismic Processing System triple: the S file carries the sources, the R file the receivers, and the X file the relation between them — which shot was recorded on which channels. Both standard revisions are supported, and the column layout can be customised to the file you were actually given rather than the one the specification describes. Where the relation already lives in the trace headers, the X file is not needed.
The processed navigation standard for towed-streamer acquisition: a single file holding source coordinates and source water depth, receiver coordinates and receiver depths, together with the geodetic coordinate system, the grid origin and scale factors, and the cable and client specifications. Loading it builds the geometry tables the assignment uses and the views that let you check them by eye. Raw, unprocessed marine navigation comes as P2/94.
The SEG's portable navigation format — survey positions written as plain text, small on disk and easy to compress. Two files are enough, sources and receivers: SEG-P1 carries no relation file the way SPS does, so the assignment takes the spread from the trace headers instead. Row ranges and column positions are mapped to the file you were actually given, and duplicates are checked before it loads.
The IOGP exchange format for processed positioning, read for marine and land surveys alike. Header records, the per-shot source, receiver and position records and the bin and CMP grid points are all parsed, and the spread table — which channels were live on which shot — is rebuilt from them. Navigation delivered as one file per sail line is loaded as a list and merged in a single run.
Shot and receiver information, uphole time and depth, channel counts and spread configuration, sweep details on a vibroseis crew, near and far offsets. Read from space-delimited, tab-delimited or CSV text, with the columns customised to your log — including the vintage ones that had to be typed up from paper first.
When the geometry has already been written into the headers, the assignment module takes it from there rather than from a navigation file. It is also where the spread comes from when the navigation you were sent does not carry one.
NAV positioning is on g-Platform's accepted list of geometry formats. Send a sample and we will confirm the variant your contractor produced before a survey is loaded on it.
Accepted on both sides of the list — as seismic and as geometry. Field variants differ between systems, so a sample file is the quickest way to confirm the flavour yours writes.
A format is only as good as the header map behind it.
Two files can both be valid SEG-Y and still disagree about which byte holds the offset. That is why reading is configurable rather than automatic — and why what you write out at the end is worth as much attention as what you read in.
Six steps from a delivery tape to a project dataset.
Loading is where a project quietly succeeds or stalls.
The same project, the same batch processing and the same cluster carry a survey from field tape through to depth. These are the other topics in the g-Platform workflow.
Questions, answered.
Which seismic data formats can g-Platform read?
Do I have to convert SEG-D before I can use it?
What if the trace headers are in the wrong bytes?
Where does the geometry itself come from?
Load your data, whatever it arrived as.
Read it, map the headers to the file you were actually given, bring in the navigation, and get the survey into the project. Talk to Geomage about a demo, or take g-Platform for a trial run.