Estimation of the slope of the acoustic attenuation coefficient

In this paper, a theoretical framework is developed which removes the Gaussian assumption commonly used in ultrasonic attenuation estimation based on mean frequency shift. The theory is developed for general non-Gaussian spectra and for media whose attenuation coefficient is nonlinear with frequency. Then, a linear approximation in the estimation of the attenuation coefficient's slope is examined. It is shown that the error due to the linear approximation is negligibly small.