A method of hybrid channel estimation in a wireless communication receiver, comprising the steps of: a) receiving a wirelessly transmitted signal including a training sequence; b) performing a correlation channel estimate on the received signal to generate correlation-based channel estimates; said method being characterized by: c) estimating coefficients of a spatial-temporal whitening filter and residual impairment covariance matrix using the correlation-based channel estimates generated in step (b); d) performing a first assessment of one or more noise metrics of the received signal to determine whether to whiten the signal; and, in response to the first assessment providing a determination to not whiten the signal, then: e1) performing a least squares-based channel estimate on the received signal to generate final channel estimates; and, in response to the first assessment providing a determination to whiten the signal, then: e2) performing noise whitening filtering on the signal, performing a second assessment of the one or more noise metrics of the noise whitening filtered signal to determine whether to whiten the signal and, in response to the second assessment providing a determination to not whiten the signal, then performing a least squares-based channel estimate on the noise whitening filtered signal to generate final channel estimates, and, in response to the second assessment providing a determination to whiten the signal, then: e3) returning to the operations defined in steps b)-e2) above with the correlation channel estimate and the further operations defined in said steps b)-e2) performed on the noise whitening filtered signal. a) receiving a wirelessly transmitted signal including a training sequence; b) performing a correlation channel estimate on the received signal to generate correlation-based channel estimates; c) estimating coefficients of a spatial-temporal whitening filter and residual impairment covariance matrix using the correlation-based channel estimates generated in step (b); d) performing a first assessment of one or more noise metrics of the received signal to determine whether to whiten the signal; and, e1) performing a least squares-based channel estimate on the received signal to generate final channel estimates; and, in response to the first assessment providing a determination to whiten the signal, then: e2) performing noise whitening filtering on the signal, performing a second assessment of the one or more noise metrics of the noise whitening filtered signal to determine whether to whiten the signal and, in response to the second assessment providing a determination to not whiten the signal, then performing a least squares-based channel estimate on the noise whitening filtered signal to generate final channel estimates, and, in response to the second assessment providing a determination to whiten the signal, then: e3) returning to the operations defined in steps b)-e2) above with the correlation channel estimate and the further operations defined in said steps b)-e2) performed on the noise whitening filtered signal. e2) performing noise whitening filtering on the signal, performing a second assessment of the one or more noise metrics of the noise whitening filtered signal to determine whether to whiten the signal and, in response to the second assessment providing a determination to not whiten the signal, then performing a least squares-based channel estimate on the noise whitening filtered signal to generate final channel estimates, and, in response to the second assessment providing a determination to whiten the signal, then: e3) returning to the operations defined in steps b)-e2) above with the correlation channel estimate and the further operations defined in said steps b)-e2) performed on the noise whitening filtered signal. e3) returning to the operations defined in steps b)-e2) above with the correlation channel estimate and the further operations defined in said steps b)-e2) performed on the noise whitening filtered signal.