Semiparametric Robust Multitaper Spectrum Estimates

This paper describes combinations of multitaper and high-resolution e.g., Music-or Prony-like estimates with an emphasis on robustness. The necessity for such estimates has been driven by problems in seismology, space physics, and cellular phone systems. Determination of the seismic "noise" spectrum is constrained by available data between earth-quakes and by the presence of many discrete modes (the so-called "seismic hum"). Thus one would like to estimate complicated modal structure from data containing many outliers and strong tidal components. The approach described here uses multitaper demodulates with an outlier search procedure.