MINIMUM-COMPONENT BASE-LINES - FOURIER-ANALYSIS FOR CONTINUUM ASSESSMENT

This describes a technique for fitting baselines or continua to scans or spectra with a large proportion occupied by signal in the form of s ources or emission/absorption lines. It is essentially a high-pass fil tering technique; the very lowest Fourier frequencies are ''filtered o ut'' by using them to construct a model of the continuum. The techniqu e is interactive, and subjective in that some decision is required by the analyst; but it is very stable despite this. Errors are analyzed a nd some examples are given to demonstrate the versatility of the techn ique. The route to generating an objective (hands-off) technique is di scussed.