Seismic profiling as a contaminant in the measurement of ambient noise spectral and spatial characteristics

Data from a vertical array experiment is used to illustrate the impact of seismic profiling on ambient noise spectrum level and vertical directionality in the 25-300 Hz frequency region. It is shown by the analysis results that seismic profiling has a substantial impact on the spectral and spatial characteristics of ambient noise. For these data, the contamination is most severe in the region below 50 Hz and in the band 150-200 Hz. Spatially, the seismic profiler energy arrives within +or-15 degrees of the horizontal and produces up to 8-dB deviations from the underlying vertical directionality of the profiler-free data. >