Baseline correction using asymmetrically reweighted penalized least squares smoothing

Abstract

Baseline correction methods based on penalized least squares are successfully applied to various spectral analyses. The methods change the weights iteratively by estimating a baseline. If a signal is below a previously fitted baseline, large weight is given. On the other hand, no weight or small weight is given when a signal is above a fitted baseline as it could be assumed to be a part of the peak. As noise is distributed above the baseline as well as below the baseline, however, it is desirable to give the same or similar weights in either case. For the purpose, we propose a new weighting scheme based on the generalized logistic function. The proposed method estimates the noise level iteratively and adjusts the weights correspondingly. According to the experimental results with simulated spectra and measured Raman spectra, the proposed method outperforms the existing methods for baseline correction and peak height estimation.