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Our Two-Way Communication Hub
At GMG we are enthusiastic about exploring new ways of communicating with our users and want to make this newsletter an effective tool for the exchange of ideas, problems, and solutions. We will present news about our new releases, technical updates, and events, but WE ALSO WANT TO HEAR FROM YOU. We would very much like to hear if you have suggestions for content or other ways we can communicate with you most effectively... please take a short moment to complete our User's Survey on your preferences for receiving releases and an online forum. And if you didn't have a chance to complete our survey concerning 64-bit operating systems, you can click on the link at the end of the Technical Updates article and let us know of your plans concerning 64-bit.
Enjoy this, our second issue.
The GMG team
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MESA 12.3 - Available Now!
The primary new feature in MESA 12.3 is the ability to import KMZ files exported from Google Earth. Users can mark the locations of exclusion zones or source/receiver lines in Google Earth and, after selecting the appropriate map projection, transform these files into features in a MESA project. We have also added the ability to merge the results of raytracing jobs. With this new feature, a long raytracing job can be split across multiple computers and the results can be merged for attribute calculation.
Read the release notes
MESA 12 is compatible with Windows 7, and has separate versions available for running on either 32-bit or 64-bit operating systems. If you would like to download MESA 12.3, you may send your request via e-mail to Sharon Day. Please note that if you are already using MESA 12 (and regardless of whether you switch between the 32-bit and 64-bit versions), you will not need to update your security key to use this latest software point release.
Questions? Please contact GMG Support.
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Dave's Tips
Dave Cunningham, Manager of GMG SoftwareMESA has always provided users with a variety of options for importing images to use as a backdrop for designing an acquisition project. These backgrounds include aerial photos, satellite photos, DXF files, Shapefiles, contour maps, and new in MESA 12.0, the ability to download content on demand using a Web Mapping Service (WMS). For MESA 12.3, we have added another low cost option for integrating satellite photos into the design process using Google Earth (©2010 Google).  Figure 1 is a screen capture from Google Earth zoomed in on an oil field in eastern Colorado. Google Earth provides annotation tools which allow you to place polygons, paths, and placemarks on the map. In this example, the user has marked all of the well locations with placemarks. He has also used the polygon tool to outline the boundary of a farm.  Read the full article.
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Technical Update: 64-bit a Recurring Theme
If you have used computer software in the geophysics industry, then you have heard the term 64-bit a lot in the last few years.
Starting about 18 years ago, 64-bit problems were first noticed in coordinates. A 32-bit floating point number had 23 bits of precision for the mantissa. This is 2 to the 23 or roughly one part in 7 million. As soon as coordinate values went above 7 million, there were precision problems where you would lose accuracy particularly in distance calculations. Coordinate values, especially for Y coordinates, started going above 7 million when referring to high Northern or Southern latitudes using UTM coordinates.
About the same time, as geophysics surveys were getting larger, there were problems with file sizes not being large enough. A 32-bit integer has a precision of 2 billion roughly and if a file such as a SEG-Y file was greater than 2 Gigabytes (Remember when that was a big deal!) it would have to be split up into smaller files. By going to 64-bit integer offsets and file sizes, the need for this extra bookkeeping and management has been eliminated. This problem was not fully solved until about 5 years ago.
The next encounter with 64-bit came with 64-bit capable computer hardware. Unix/Linux machines led the way roughly 10 or so years ago. PCs that were 64-bit capable started showing up about 5 years ago. As soon as the hardware was ready, Unix operating systems that could run in a 64-bit mode were right behind. With 64-bit hardware came wider 64-bit data buses that can transfer data more efficiently. An analogy is wider highways.
In the PC world, however, we had 64-bit capable hardware but not a Windows 64-bit operating system. Windows XP 64-bit was the first non-server PC system to have a 64-bit operating system. However, this was more of an experimental operating system. Starting with Windows Vista and now Windows 7, we have a complete 64-bit operating system. This includes support for the new 64-bit networking standard IPv6 (Internet Protocol version 6) for internet addresses and much more efficient multi-threading.
We at GMG began to modify our MESA software to take advantage of the newly available 64-bit operating system. With MESA 12.1, released in 2010, we were able to provide a 64-bit version. MESA's 64-bit version not only shows dramatic performance increases, some procedures with very large data sets are only possible with the 64-bit version. We have seen MESA use up to 6.5 Gigabytes of available memory and there is no theoretical limit.
For MESA, there's still a significant 64-bit hurdle left. As geophysical surveys have exploded in size, we are seeing raw trace counts exceed 4 billion. For instance, 300 thousand sources firing into 30 thousand receivers will lead to a trace count of roughly 10 billion. There are many surveys, especially Ocean Bottom Cable (OBC) surveys where these geometries are being contemplated. This requires trace counts which are now a 32-bit integer to become a 64-bit integer. A 64-bit integer will handle 10 to the 19th power number of traces, so has more than enough capacity. This will require databases to be restructured and will have major repercussions for visualization and data handling strategies. A related issue is trace index numbers which are a combination of source indexing and receiver indexing.
So, no doubt, we will all continue to hear about 64-bit! In fact, we'd like to hear from you about your operating system. Do you have plans to upgrade your operating system to 64-bit? If so, send us an email.
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 Sharon Day Named Sales Representative for GMG North AmericaMany of you know Sharon, who joined the GMG team four years ago. We are pleased to announce that Sharon has recently been named to the position of Sales Representative for GMG in North America. Until recently, she had been working on a part-time basis, handling the software security keys and maintenance renewal items, as well as managing our client database. Sharon will retain those global responsibilities and, in her expanded role, will be responsible for issuing price quotes, organizing user meetings, soliciting user feedback and suggestions, and providing additional sales support for customers in the US and Canada. She has accepted the task with her usual cheery enthusiasm and is eager to step up as that link that enables GMG to better serve and support our user base in North America. Prior to joining the group, she spent many years in the banking industry in Texas, and specialized in credit underwriting to E&P companies. Please join us in congratulating Sharon on her new job! If you would like to talk to Sharon about a price quote, please email Sharon. |
 Share Your IdeasWe are busy implementing the plan for our MESA 13 release. The main focus of this newest version will be making sure MESA efficiently supports the ever-increasing size of seismic surveys (like +20B traces!). We're also working to overhaul the raytracer for improved multi-core performance, among other improvements. It's not too late for your input. If you have specific requests for MESA 13 or ideas for added functionality, please email Dave Cunningham. |
Global Gatherings
Denver Colorado
September 14-16, 2011
SEG
San Antonio, TX
September 18-22, 2011
MESA User Meeting
Moscow, Russia
September 26, 2011
KIOGE 2011
19th Kazakhstan International Oil and Gas Exhibition and Conference
Almaty, Kazakhstan
October 5-8, 2011
If you are interested in scheduling a regional user training session email GMG Support.
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Users' Survey