AGSO Formats for Marine Seismic and Navigation Digital Data

AGSO (Australian Geological Survey Organisation) provides a format description for digital marine seismic and navigation data. The description details standard and optional trace header entries, including variations for unstacked data and conventions for shot point annotation and data polarity. The format is based on established geophysical standards and includes notes for data released before and after 1993.

Use Cases

• Interpret seismic trace headers based on documented mnemonics and byte positions.
• Reconcile vintage seismic data (pre-1993) using the documented SPN (pseudo shot point number) convention.
• Process marine seismic data while maintaining field data polarity as described.
• Integrate supplementary geophysical data like bathymetry, magnetics, and gravity corrected to a common mid-point.

Strengths

• Format is based on a cited, peer-reviewed geophysical standard (Barry et al., 1975).
• Description clarifies a significant historical change in shot point numbering conventions around 1993.
• Documentation includes specific technical details like trace header byte ranges (1-180) and correction conventions.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• Description metadata is limited; actual data quality requires manual inspection after download.

Provenance

Source

Geoscience Australia Data

Collection Method

Likely compiled from AGSO (Australian Geological Survey Organisation) data acquisition and processing standards.

Time Range

References data released prior to and after 1993.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-04-20 03:02:36.282396; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Marine data, likely from Australian territorial waters or surveys conducted by AGSO.