an improved de - ghosting method and system that utilizes multi - component marine seismic data recorded in a fluid medium . the method makes use of two types of data : pressure data that represents the pressure in the fluid medium , such as sea water , at a number of locations ; and vertical particle motion data that represents the vertical particle motion of the acoustic energy propagating in the fluid medium at a number of locations within the same spatial area as the pressure data . the vertical particle motion data can be in various forms , for example , velocity , pressure gradient , displacement , or acceleration . a spatial filter is designed so as to be effective at separating up and down propagating acoustic energy over substantially the entire range of non - horizontal incidence angles in the fluid medium . the spatial filter is applied to either the vertical particle motion data or to the pressure data , and then combined with the other data to generate pressure data that has its up and down propagating components separated .