Automatic Autocorrelation and Spectral Analysis

Book excerpt: Spectral analysis requires subjective decisions which influence the final estimate and mean that different analysts can obtain different results from the same stationary stochastic observations. Statistical signal processing can overcome this difficulty, producing a unique solution for any set of observations but that is only acceptable if it is close to the best attainable accuracy for most types of stationary data. This book describes a method which fulfils the above near-optimal-solution criterion, taking advantage of greater computing power and robust algorithms to produce enough candidate models to be sure of providing a suitable candidate for given data.