Figure 3
Two fragments of experimental GC-MS data matrices, equation (6), showing signals from closely co-eluting components. The signal peaks in the panel (a) exhibit symmetric peak shapes, while the signal peaks in the the panel (b) show slightly asymmetric peaks. This effect (dubbed "peak tailing") can originate from several instrument conditions, for example column degradation, or contaminants left in the injection port. Both data sets show a continuum between noise and weak signals, a situation typically encountered in practice.