This dissertation consists of two parts. The first part deals with the performance appraisal of estimation algorithms. The second part focuses on the application of estimation algorithms to target tracking. Performance appraisal is crucial for understanding, developing and comparing various estimation algorithms. In particular, with the evolvement of estimation theory and the increase of problem complexity, performance appraisal is getting more and more challenging for engineers to make comprehensive conclusions. However, the existing theoretical results are inadequate for practical reference. The first part of this dissertation is dedicated to performance measures which include local performance measures, global performance measures and model distortion measure. The second part focuses on application of the recursive best linear unbiased estimation (BLUE) or lineae minimum mean square error (LMMSE) estimation to nonlinear measurement problem in target tracking. Kalman filter has been the dominant basis for dynamic state filtering for several decades. Beyond Kalman filter, a more fundamental basis for the recursive best linear unbiased filtering has been thoroughly investigated in a series of papers by Dr. X. Rong Li. Based on the so-called quasirecursive best linear unbiased filtering technique, the constraints of the Kalman filter Linear-Gaussian assumptions can be relaxed such that a general linear filtering technique for nonlinear systems can be achieved. An approximate optimal BLUE filter is implemented for nonlinear measurements in target tracking which outperforms the existing method significantly in terms of accuracy, credibility and robustness.