Amplitude errors in the burg spectrum estimation of sinusoidal signals

Burg MEM technique used to identify the parameters off sinusoids embedded in white noise suffers for peak-position and amplitude errors. In this paper, the existing technique that provides an estimate of the sinusoidal power from the spectrum level is tested for high SNRs. We demostrate both theoretically and via a computer simulation that the amplitude of the spectral peak is not a reliable parameter, even as an indication of signal power. A simple expression shows that the amplitude errors depend crucially on the initial phase of the signal, for a fixed data length and sampling rate.