In this study observers and stochastic state estimation for

- D systems are considered. The analysis uses a wave advance process model in transporting the existing 1-D results to the

-D setting. A constrained minimization technique is used to compute the optimal state estimator which preserves quarter plane causality. The optimal state estimator, without the quarter plane causality constraint, is also determined. A comparison then yields insight into the tradeoff between quarter plane causality and estimator performance.