The Maximum-Likelihood Property of Estimators of Wave Parameters from Heave, Pitch, and Roll Buoys

Abstract

It is shown that ocean-wave spectrum parameters obtained from spectra of time series measured with heave, pitch, and roll data buoys are maximum-likelihood (ML) estimators under certain assumptions about the wave field. A modified set of ML estimators where the linear wave-theory dispersion relation is strictly enforced is shown to have only marginally better performance.