Minimizing Trade-Offs Between Spectral Smoothing And Resolution

Boxcar smoothing is a convenient way to smooth out noise in a spectrum, enabling peaks of interest to be more easily viewed, defined and characterized for properties like peak intensity, center wavelength, and FWHM (full width half maximum). It is a convenient complement to spectral averaging, particularly to minimize acquisition times, but must be used judiciously to avoid impacting the spectral resolution of the data acquired.