Patent ID: 10840073

Abstract:
A method comprising decomposing mass spectrometry data, especially of ion species that undergo multiple direction changes in a periodic manner, the data comprising signal and noise measured over time, into a sum of K harmonic component signals and a noise component, wherein the harmonic component signals and their number K are derived from the data and a determined quantity representative of the noise. The harmonic component signals and their number K may be determined iteratively on the basis of: using an initial value of K to calculate a minimised non-negative measure of difference R(K) between the measured and model data comprising data sets of K-harmonic component signals, and if R(K) does not lie within a noise range based on the quantity representative of the noise, changing the value of K and recalculating R(K) until R(K) lies within the noise range. Mass spectral information may be derived from the model data set.