A new method for moving-average parameter estimation

We introduce an apparently original method for moving-average parameter estimation, based on covariance fitting and convex optimization. The proposed method is shown by means of numerical simulation to provide much more accurate parameter estimates, in difficult scenarios, than a related existing method does. We derive the new method via an analogy with a covariance fitting interpretation of the Capon beamforming from array processing. In the process, we also point out some new facts on Capon beamforming.