The HPC for Energy project, coordinated by Barcelona Supercomputing Center (BSC), is proud to present the HPC4E Seismic Test Suite, which provides both developers and users of HPC geophysical imaging tools with a set of tests that is scalable in size, easy to set up and equally usable with any kind of 3D seismic modelling algorithm. This includes elastic and acoustic models, with and without topography.
The HPC4E Seismic Test Suite features:
- 4 models and a series of tests of different size and physical simplifications (labeled AF, AT, EF and ET);
- 2 wavelets: with cutoff frequency at 20 Hz and 50 Hz respectively;
- 2 shot layouts: unit (1 single shot) or survey (1681 shots).
These features combine to allow up to 16 different tests of various sizes and complexities. A script is provided that generates 3D gridded volumes and 2D gridded layer surfaces for any desired spacing, so that the resolution requirements of any modelling code can be met. The output makes it very easy to run the tests with grid-based methods (e.g. finite differences), unstructured mesh-based methods (discontinuous Galerkin or (spectral) finite elements) or even boundary element methods.
The HPC4E Seismic Test Suite is an open and freely available test set that will be useful for developers all over the world. It can be used for testing 3D seismic modelling applications in tasks ranging from those small enough to be carried out on a standard PC to extremely large ones that cannot be solved quickly enough even on today’s fastest supercomputers and that may require the next generation of exascale supercomputers.
Josep de la Puente, BSC researcher involved in the HPC4E project, explains that “this synthetic Test Suite, as opposed to other tests and benchmarks already existing in the field, does not focus on checking the geophysical accuracy of a method for a single realistic scenario. In fact, the model is not even geologically sound. The goal is to simplify the task of checking the efficiency and scalability of novel geophysical modelling algorithms and their performance in new architectures as quickly as possible. Furthermore, it simplifies the process of assessing the impact of increasing the resolution or the complexity of the model on the performance of the algorithm. In short, the Test Suite is intended to increase the pace of development of new modelling and imaging technologies”.
Synthetic tests, such as the HPC4E Seismic Test Suite, explains de la Puente, “are a numerical laboratory for our data processing programs, where we can assess the quality of the seismic response, as well as estimate the cost associated with carrying out the processing. By doing this beforehand, we can fine-tune the processing programmes and therefore eventually obtain faster and better images of the subsurface”.
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