Description

Filters a set of trace headers so that only traces belonging to spatially dense groups are kept, while traces that sit in sparse or isolated areas are dropped. The module plots every trace at its X/Y position (taken from two trace headers you choose) and groups nearby points together, keeping a trace only if enough neighbors are found around it within a search radius. Use it to clean up irregular 3D geometry, thin out overlapping or duplicated positions, or exclude stray/outlier traces before binning, gridding or stacking.

Input data

Input trace headers

The trace header set to analyze. Each trace is located in the plane using the two headers selected below, then tested for local point density.

Parameters

Trace header for X

The trace header supplying the horizontal (X) coordinate used to place each trace when testing density. Any standard or additional trace header can be selected, so you can cluster by bin/CDP position, source position, receiver position, or any custom coordinate header stored with the traces.

Default: Bin X coordinate. Change it if you want density to be judged by a different spatial reference, such as source or receiver coordinates.

Trace header for Y

The trace header supplying the vertical (Y) coordinate used together with the X header to place each trace when testing density.

Default: Bin Y coordinate. Keep this consistent with the X header so both coordinates describe the same point (e.g. both bin, or both source).

Neighborhood radius

The search radius, in meters, used around each trace position to count how many other traces lie nearby. A trace is considered part of a dense area only if enough neighbors (see Minimum number of points) fall within this radius. Increasing the radius makes the test more tolerant of gaps and merges nearby clusters together; decreasing it makes the density test stricter and more local.

Default: 100 m. Set it close to your typical trace/bin spacing so that normally-spaced traces are recognized as dense, while genuinely isolated traces are not.

Minimum number of points

The minimum number of traces (including the trace itself) that must fall inside the neighborhood radius for that area to be treated as dense. Traces with fewer neighbors than this are treated as noise/outliers and are not kept in the included output. Raising this value tightens the density requirement and removes more marginal traces; lowering it keeps more traces, including looser clusters.

Default: 15. Minimum allowed value is 2. Lower values are more permissive and keep sparser groups of traces; higher values require tighter clustering.

Create excluded traces

When enabled, the traces that fail the density test are collected and written to a second, separate output so you can inspect or QC what was removed. When disabled, only the kept (included) traces are produced, which is faster and uses less memory if you do not need to review the discarded traces.

Default: Off (excluded traces are not produced).

Output data

Included trace headers

The trace headers that passed the density test — traces located in areas with sufficient neighboring trace density. This is the main result to feed into subsequent processing steps.

Excluded trace headers

The trace headers that failed the density test (isolated or sparse traces). Only produced when Create excluded traces is enabled; otherwise this output is empty. Useful for reviewing what was removed from the survey geometry.