Streamer manufacturing

Abstract

A method of manufacturing a streamer section. The method includes coupling together a plurality of prefabricated harness modules. A harness module includes a plurality of geophysical sensors disposed along a length of the harness module and a sensor node communicatively coupled to the plurality of sensors. A first connector is disposed at a first end of the harness module and a second connector disposed at a second end of the harness module. The first connector is coupled to the sensor node and is configured to couple to a second harness module and receive data from a sensor node in the second harness module. The second connector is coupled to the sensor node and is configured to couple to a third harness module and forward data to a sensor node in the third harness module.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A harness module comprising:
 a plurality of geophysical sensors disposed along a length of the harness module;   a sensor node communicatively coupled to the plurality of sensors, the sensor node configured to receive data from each of the plurality of sensors and send the data to another sensor node or a backbone node communicatively coupled to the harness module;   a first connector disposed at a first end of the harness module; and   a second connector disposed at a second end of the harness module, wherein;
 the first connector is coupled to the sensor node and is configured to couple to a second harness module and receive data from a sensor node in the second harness module; and 
 the second connector is coupled to the sensor node and is configured to couple to a third harness module and forward data to a sensor node in the third harness module. 
   
     
     
         2 . The harness module of  claim 1  wherein each geophysical sensor of the plurality of sensors is selected from the group consisting of:
 a hydrophone; 
 a geophone; 
 a particle motion sensor comprising a piezoelectric accelerometer; and 
 a MEMS-based particle motion sensor. 
 
     
     
         3 . The harness module of  claim 1  wherein a first plurality of the geophysical sensors comprises a first group of sensors coupled to the sensor node and a second plurality of sensors comprises a second group of sensors coupled to the sensor node. 
     
     
         4 . The harness module of  claim 1  further comprising:
 a cable harness comprising a plurality of cables, each cable of the plurality of cables coupled to one of the sensor nodes; and 
 each geophysical sensor is spliced to a cable of the cable harness. 
 
     
     
         5 . The harness module of  claim 4  wherein the cable harness further comprises a cable sleeve disposed about the plurality of cables. 
     
     
         6 . The harness module of  claim 1  wherein the sensor node comprises an analog-to-digital converter (ADC) coupled to an analog output data of one or more of the geophysical sensors of the plurality of sensors. 
     
     
         7 . The harness module of  claim 6  wherein the sensor node further comprises a tilt sensor configured to determine an orientation of the harness module.