th  - 1987 - 51st ENC Conference

MK27
QUANTITATIUN OF 1-D SPECTRA WITH LOW SIGNAL TO NOISE RATIO
Sarah J. Nelson* and Truman R.,Bro~
Fox Chase Cancer Center, Philadelphia, PA 1911!
A new method of analysing 1-V spectra with low signal to noise ratio has
been developed. In contrast to other techniques of noise suppression such as
the mtched filter and maximum entropy method, this provides an automatic
quantitation of the spectrum. The output of the computer algorithm which
implements the new method comprises estimates of (i) a slowly varying
background component, (ii) the variance of random noise, (iii) peak positions,
peak heights, peak areas and (iv) the predicted accuracy of the peak parameter
estimates. The performance of the method has been investigated using a variety
of simulated spectra with different types of background and a range of
different peak heights and line widths. A comparison of the filtered spectra
with those obtained using the matched filte~ and maximum entropy method
demonstrated the advantages of being able to directly estimate the variable
background and to use both peak height and peak width in distinguishing peaks
from random noise. The method has also been applied to a variety of different
experimental data and shows distinct advantages over the conventional
filtering techniques.