Subsurface characterization using Distributed Acoustic Sensing (DAS) on an offshore fiber between Denmark and Norway

In April 2023 a seismic survey was carried out in southern Skagerrak using a towed-streamer and airgun setup. The aim of the survey was investigating the suitability of the Jammerbugt structure for CO2 storage. A fiber-optic cable is co-located with the Skagerrak 4 high-voltage interconnector cable between Denmark and Norway. The fiber was crossed multiple times by the surveying ship. Relative strain was measured along a 80 km section of the fiber using Distributed Acoustic Sensing (DAS) during the active seismic survey. 

Seismic arrivals from the airgun shots were clearly recorded by the fiber. The DAS data also contains a large number of other signals caused by passing ships and wave interactions. Shot-gathers were extracted from the DAS data using the timing and location of airgun shots. These were subsequently processed and compared with traditional shot-gathers recorded by the towed-streamer. The DAS data contains distinguishable direct, refracted and surface wave arrivals from the airgun shots. Reflection hyperbolas are also observed in the DAS data at larger receiver-offsets, but only when the source is close to the fiber.

The comparison indicates that DAS is able to at least partially record the same wavefield from an active source as that recorded by hydrophones. Consequently the DAS data can be used for imaging and subsurface characterization.

The utilized DAS interrogator unit is owned by the danish transmission system operator, Energinet, who provided the DAS data for this study. Data processing is carried out using MatLab and Promax.