Initial Parameter Estimates
Problems of ill-conditioning and divergence can be ameliorated by finding initial parameter estimates that are near to the optimal values. A good way to do this is by computer simulation. Both the observed and calculated data are displayed on a screen. The parameters of the model are adjusted by hand until the agreement between observed and calculated data is reasonably good. Although this will be a subjective judgment, it is sufficient to find a good starting point for the non-linear refinement.
Read more about this topic: Non-linear Least Squares
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