As A Science Major, You Will All Eventually Have To Deal With Data
As A Science Major, You Will All Eventually Have To Deal With Data
Processing
Chapter 3
A Simple Example
2 x
0.5a
0.5a
Amplitude
y a sin
0.5
Wavelength ()
-a
Amplitude (a) =
Wavelength () =
Frequency =
Period =
1.5
nx
y a sin
Harmonic Analysis
1st 5 harmonics
1
0.5
0
0.5
-1
nx
y a sin
0.2 L
0.4 L
0.6 L
0.8 L
Fourier Analysis
A type of harmonic
analysis where wiggly
data are separated into
various harmonics of
differing amplitude
Adjusts the amplitudes
of each harmonic
Can isolate dominant
frequencies/wavelength
s in data and remove
unwanted ones
Sum of harmonics
reproduces data exactly
What to Remove?
Caveats of
Fourier Analysis
Requires a complete
signal
Starts and ends at
same value
Only analyzes
wavelengths that are
multiples of the signal
length
Geologic targets likely
have multiple
wavelengths and may
share some
Digital Filtering
An alternative way to remove unwanted
wavelengths/frequencies: Filtering
Usually applied to regularly space data
If data not regular, interpolation can be used
Valu
e
Filtered
Value
1
18
X3
2
09
2 13
3
510
5
6
4
4
5
9
6
4
7
2
High-pass filter
Allows high freq
To pass through
Band-pass filter
Constructed to only let certain
bands or frequencies through
A subwoofer
in a
bandpass
box
A filter can
completely
decimate a
signal
Aliasing
If sampling rate
(resolution) approaches
wavelength of signal
May see false patterns
Aliasing: Discrete
(non-continuous) data
can suggest patterns
that are not real
Nyquist wavelength
= half the signals
wavelength.
This is the minimum
sampling rate to avoid
aliasing