Pre-whitening Filter Enhanced Generalized Cross-Correlation Algorithm

This document introduces a generalized cross-correlation algorithm incorporating pre-whitening filtration. This algorithm demonstrates significant utility across various domains, particularly in time-delay estimation applications. The pre-whitening filter serves as a preprocessing technique that enhances signal quality and accuracy by reducing noise and interference through spectral equalization. In implementation, this typically involves applying a whitening filter to the input signals before cross-correlation computation, which can be achieved using frequency-domain processing through FFT operations and spectral normalization. For time-delay estimation, this algorithm enables precise measurement of signal propagation delays by sharpening the cross-correlation peak through noise suppression - a critical requirement in applications like acoustic localization, radar systems, and seismic analysis. The core computational procedure generally involves: signal Fourier transformation, power spectral density estimation, whitening filter design (often using inverse spectral weighting), and phase-transform based cross-correlation. Understanding and mastering this pre-whitening enhanced generalized cross-correlation algorithm is therefore essential for researchers and engineers working in signal processing applications.