Monica Roca (isardSAT, Spain); Eduard Makhoul Varona (isardSAT, Spain)

In the estimation of sea state parameters a retracker induces biases during the fitting of the recorded data by a model waveform. In order to isolate the biases that are due to the method of fitting from the biases that are due to other perturbing influences, simulated waveforms were generated using an idealized model waveform and idealized speckle statistics, and the sea state parameters were estimated from these simulated waveforms using various fitting methods. The methods evaluated were minimum squared error estimation and maximum likelihood estimation for conventional multi-look waveforms, full DDM waveforms, and for ACDC waveforms.