er function ously. 7.3. Some Examples Using Correlations Estimated by Time Averaging Autocorrelations are calculated routinely in applications involving radar, geo- physics, sonar, adaptive systems, communications, and the like. The similarity between two waveforms may be measured using correlation methods by multiplying the two waveforms, ordinate by ordinate, and then adding the products over the duration of the waveforms, as we did in the last example, The similarity between the two waveforms is assessed by the size of the sum of the products. Ifthe waveforms are identical (or nearly so), then nearly every product contributes a positive term to the sum. The sum will therefore be large. If, however, the waveforms are dissimilar, then some positive prod- ucts may be canceled by negative products in the sum, and the final result will be small. ‘Ariother application of correlation i the measurement ofthe time delay ofa signal, es we consi ered in Example 6.19. Imagine we have two identical waveforms, but one is shifted in time rela tive tothe other, asin Figure 7.5, except that the shift isa delay, tht is, shifted to the right rather than tothe left. If we calculate the crosscorrelation function for these two waveforms, we wil find ‘thatthe erosscorelation function will peak atthe time sift corresponding tothe time delay be- tween the two waveforms, We may measure the instant at which the peak occurs in the crosscor- relation function to determine the time delay. sbi. mip, sum, and vide by N oobi Ryy(2) Rea No Figure7.4 —_Exomple of estimating an aviocoreation function from dato | Example 7.9