Ariel Lellouch
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| BSc | Physics and Mathematics |
|---|---|
| MSc | Geophysics |
| PhD | Geophysics |
| BSc university | Hebrew University |
| MSc university | Tel Aviv University |
| PhD university | Tel Aviv University |
Ariel Lellouch has recently joined the Department of Geophysics and Planetary Sciences at Tel Aviv University as an assistant professor, following a postdoctoral fellowship at the Stanford Exploration Project (SEP). He received his PhD and Masters of Science in Geophysics from Tel Aviv University, after a Bachelor of Science in Physics and Mathematics from the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. His research group focuses on various applications of fiber-optic seismology (DAS), from near-surface imaging to seismological studies of the Dead Sea Fault, through traffic monitoring in urban environments. He was awarded Honorable Mentions for the best paper presented at the SEG annual meeting (2019) and best paper in The Leading Edge (2020). He was nominated as the SEG Middle East & Africa Honorary Lecturer for 2022.
SEG J. Clarence Karcher Award 2024
Ariel Lellouch has established himself as a leading expert in the use of distributed acoustic sensing (DAS) in the borehole environment. Lellouch authored the first paper with observations of deep borehole-guided waves on DAS data. He led a research effort that detected guided waves generated by perforation shots and microseismicity in unconventional reservoirs during hydraulic fracturing. From there he developed workflows to use seismic phases from guided waves for fracture imaging and determining elastic properties of reservoirs. Lellouch’s accomplishments have been recognized by his peers, as evidenced by citation and h-index values commensurate with many late-career scholars. His groundbreaking research discoveries garnered acclaim with Honorable Mention, Best Paper in The Leading Edge in 2021, Honorable Mention, Best Paper at the 2019 SEG Annual Meeting, and his selection as the SEG Middle East and Africa Honorary Lecturer for 2022. With his publishing successes and history of pioneering discoveries, it is no surprise Lellouch was selected to serve as an associate editor of Geophysics and guest editor for The Leading Edge.
Biography Citation for the J. Clarence Karcher Award
Ariel Lellouch is a bright, inquisitive, and driven young geophysicist. Notwithstanding his young age, Ariel has already established himself as one of the leading experts in geophysical applications of distributed acoustic sensing (DAS) by conducting and publishing groundbreaking research, particularly in borehole seismology. SEG acknowledged his contributions by naming him the 2022 Honorary Lecturer for the Middle East and Africa with his lecture titled “Applications of fiber-optic sensing to borehole seismology.”
Ariel arrived at Stanford in 2018 for postdoctoral training as a freshly minted PhD from Tel Aviv University with excellent recommendations from the renowned faculty members who supervised him. He quickly exceeded my high expectations and spent three incredibly productive years working with my research group, the Stanford Exploration Project (SEP). Ariel promptly took advantage of the opportunities created by novel DAS data sets available to him at Stanford. He made substantial contributions to analyzing DAS data acquired in deep vertical boreholes and fundamental discoveries on wave-propagation processes recorded by DAS in unconventional horizontal wells.
Ariel is currently an assistant professor at Tel Aviv University. Ariel's group's research on detecting and characterizing near-surface anomalies (using fiber sensing and conventional geophones) is positively impacting the SEG near-surface community. It has already produced several journal papers and exciting new ideas. Even more critical from the SEG perspective is the fact that Ariel has successfully established a very active group and has been able to attract bright young scientists to applied geophysics.
Shortly after he arrived at Stanford, Ariel started working on a data set recorded in a deep vertical borehole. Using these data, he developed innovative techniques to estimate VP and VS profiles from local and regional earthquakes detected by vertical DAS arrays and then utilized the estimated velocity to detect seismic events automatically. Next, Ariel applied his new methods to successfully compare data recorded in the Frontier Observatory for Research in Geothermal Energy (FORGE) borehole by DAS with data recorded by conventional seismic sensors. He analyzed the microseismic events caused by hydraulic fracturing of the FORGE geothermal reservoir recorded by the DAS array and the data recorded by a borehole geophone array. He also analyzed small regional earthquakes that were mostly undetected using the regional seismometer network around FORGE. The four journal papers presenting these results have established vertical DAS as an essential tool for monitoring induced and natural seismicity in geothermal and carbon capture and storage projects.
Ariel was the driving force behind our groundbreaking analysis of guide waves in low-velocity unconventional reservoirs generated by perforation shots or microseismic events induced by hydraulic fracturing. This research earned Ariel an Honorable Mention for Best Paper presented at the 2019 SEG Annual Meeting and, with Colorado School of Mines (CSM) colleagues, an Honorable Mention for 2021 Best Paper in The Leading Edge. He spearheaded the publications of many important journal papers on the topic. In a Physical Review Research paper, he clearly presented the physical understanding and quantitative analysis of the observed wave phenomenon. Ariel also published a groundbreaking Geophysics paper on using guided waves for imaging fractures in the reservoir and, together with CSM colleagues, another Geophysics paper on their use for estimating reservoir elastic properties.
Finally, Ariel has a remarkable ability to work effectively with colleagues of very different backgrounds and levels of seniority. I personally observed him working well at Stanford with senior faculty and scientists, and I witnessed him spending a significant amount of time and energy mentoring junior students. He continues contributing to the SEG community by serving as associate editor of Geophysics, editor of several Geophysics special sections, and organizing research workshops.
2022 SEG Honorary Lecturer, Middle East & Africa
Applications of fiber-optic sensing to borehole seismology
Distributed acoustic sensing (DAS) is an emerging technology that leverages optical fibers to record the seismic wavefield with an unprecedented spatial resolution. In this talk, I will describe various seismic-band applications utilizing optical fibers deployed in boreholes. We first illustrate how records from a vertical DAS array can be simply and effectively processed to construct velocity models, detect microseismic events and earthquakes, locate them, and estimate their magnitude. Then, we show how a horizontal DAS array deployed in an unconventional shale reservoir records guided waves propagating for hundreds of meters with frequencies as high as 700 Hz. Thanks to the high resolution of DAS measurements, guided waves are recorded unaliased despite their very short (<10 m) wavelength. We compare the field observations with semi-analytical and wave-equation modeling approaches. Guided waves are also strongly affected by open fractures induced by hydraulic stimulation. We use a horizontal cross-well acquisition of perforation shots recorded by a DAS array in a simple, geometrical analysis of horizontal fracture growth. We also analyze guided waves generated by microseismic events and can locate the events despite the unidirectional nature of the DAS measurements.
Additional Resources
A recording of the lecture is available.[1]
Listen to Ariel discuss his lecture in How and why DAS succeeds, Episode 152[2] of Seismic Soundoff, in-depth conversations in applied geophysics.
References
External links
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