Minimum variance linear unbiased estimators of the Rayleigh parameter based on ranked set sampling procedures

The minimum variance linear unbiased estimators for the scale parameter of the Rayleigh distribution using three ranked set sampling procedures are derived. The coefficients for the estimator based on ranked set sample of size n are tabled to five decimal places for n = 2(1)15. The ranked set sampling procedure is modified to obtain an improved estimator for the parameter of the Rayleigh distribution. The new ranked set sampling procedure propsed by Bhoj (1997b) is used to get a better estimator. The coefficients for these estimators are also given in this paper. The efficiencies of the estimators derived in this paper are high compared to the least squares estimator based on ordered observations.