Performance of Msplit estimates in the context of vertical displacement analysis

Abstract

AbstractThis paper concerns two types of Msplit estimation: squared Msplit estimation (SMS), which assumes normality of observation errors and absolute Msplit estimation (AMS), which applies {\text{L}_{1}} norm criterion. The main objective of the paper is to assess the accuracy of such estimators in vertical displacement analysis by applying Monte Carlo simulations. Another issue is to compare the accuracy of both estimators with the accuracy of the least squares estimation (LS). The paper shows that the accuracy of both Msplit estimates is like the accuracy of LS estimates. However, if some nonrandom errors occur, then accuracy of AMS estimates might be better than the accuracy of the rest of the estimates considered here. It stems from the fact that AMS estimates are robust against disturbances which have a small magnitude. It is also worth noting that the accuracy of both Msplit estimates might depend on the magnitude of the displacement.