MCFIT-Fit a continuum to a spectrum, given a mask spectrum

Description:

Performs a masked fit to a spectrum. At a given number of equally separated points in the spectrum, the average of the surrounding points is taken and a new spectrum is formed by interpolating between the resulting values. Any points in spectrum for which the corresponding element of the mask spectrum is non-zero will be ignored.

Parameters:

SPECTRUM

The spectrum to which the masked fit is to be applied. At a given number of equally separated points in SPECTRUM, the average of the surrounding data is taken and a new spectrum formed by interpolating between the resulting values.

MASK

The name of the spectrum to be used as a mask. Any points in SPECTRUM for which the corresponding element in MASK is non-zero will be ignored in the fit.

POINTS

The number of spline points to be used in the fit. The actual number used may be less, since the points are equispaced and some may be masked out.)

OUTPUT

The name of the resulting fitted spectrum. Note that the default is the same as SPECTRUM - i.e. the fitting will be performed in situ, which is faster but destroys the original data.

Source comments:

 M C F I T

 Performs a masked fit to a spectrum.  At a given number of
 equally separated points in the spectrum, the average of the
 surrounding points is taken and a new spectrum is formed by
 interpolating between the resulting values.  Any points in the
 spectrum for which the corresponding element of the mask spectrum
 is non-zero will be ignored.

 Command parameters -

 SPECTRUM     (Character) The spectrum to be fitted
 MASK         (Character) The mask spectrum to be used
 POINTS       (Numeric) The number of points to be used
 OUTPUT       (Character) The name of the resulting spectrum

 Command keywords - None

 User variables used - None
                                KS / CIT 8th April 1984