Frequency spectrum
The frequency spectrum of a time-domain signal is a representation of that signal in the frequency domain. The frequency spectrum can be generated via a Fourier transform of the signal, and the resulting values are usually presented as amplitude and phase, both plotted versus frequency.[1]
Any signal that can be represented as an amplitude that varies with time has a corresponding frequency spectrum. This includes familiar concepts such as visible light (color), musical notes, radio/TV channels, and even the regular rotation of the earth. When these physical phenomena are represented in the form of a frequency spectrum, certain physical descriptions of their internal processes become much simpler. Often, the frequency spectrum clearly shows harmonics, visible as distinct spikes or lines at particular frequencies, that provide insight into the mechanisms that generate the entire signal.
Light
Light from many different sources contains various colors, each with its own brightness or intensity. A rainbow, or prism, sends these component colors in different directions, making them individually visible at different angles. A graph of the intensity plotted against the frequency (showing the brightness of each color) is the frequency spectrum of the light. When all the visible frequencies are present equally, the perceived color of the light is white, and the spectrum is a flat line. Therefore, flat-line spectrums in general are often referred to as white, whether they represent light or another type of wave phenomenon (sound, for example, or vibration in a structure).
Sound
Similarly, a source of sound can have many different frequencies mixed. A musical tone's timbre is characterized by its harmonic spectrum. Sound in our environment that we refer to as noise includes many different frequencies. When a sound signal contains a mixture of all audible frequencies, distributed equally over the audio spectrum, it is called white noise.[2]
Physical acoustics of music
Sound spectrum is one of the determinants of the timbre or quality of a sound or note. It is the relative strength of pitches called harmonics and partials (collectively overtones) at various frequencies usually above the fundamental frequency, which is the actual note named (e.g. an A).
The spectrum analyzer is an instrument which can be used to convert the sound wave of the musical note into a visual display of the constituent frequencies. This visual display is referred to as an acoustic spectrogram. Software based audio spectrum analyzers are available at low cost, providing easy access not only to industry professionals, but also to academics, students and the hobbyist. The acoustic spectrogram generated by the spectrum analyzer provides an acoustic signature of the musical note. In addition to revealing the fundamental frequency and its overtones, the spectrogram is also useful for analysis of the temporal attack, decay, sustain, and release of the musical note.
Radio
In radio and telecommunications, the frequency spectrum can be shared among many different broadcasters. Each broadcast radio and TV station transmits a wave on an assigned frequency range, called a channel. When many broadcasters are present, the radio spectrum consists of the sum of all the individual channels, each carrying separate information, spread across a wide frequency spectrum. Any particular radio receiver will detect a single function of amplitude (voltage) vs. time. The radio then uses a tuned circuit or tuner to select a single channel or frequency band and demodulate or decode the information from that broadcaster. If we made a graph of the strength of each channel vs. the frequency of the tuner, it would be the frequency spectrum of the antenna signal.
Spectrum analysis
Spectrum analysis, also referred to as frequency domain analysis or spectral density estimation, is the technical process of decomposing a complex signal into simpler parts. As described above, many physical processes are best described as a sum of many individual frequency components. Any process that quantifies the various amounts (e.g. amplitudes, powers, intensities, or phases), versus frequency can be called spectrum analysis.
Spectrum analysis can be performed on the entire signal. Alternatively, a signal can be broken into short segments (sometimes called frames), and spectrum analysis may be applied to these individual segments. Periodic functions (such as 
) are particularly well-suited for this sub-division. General mathematical techniques for analyzing non-periodic functions fall into the category of Fourier analysis.
The Fourier transform of a function produces a frequency spectrum which contains all of the information about the original signal, but in a different form. This means that the original function can be completely reconstructed (synthesized) by an inverse Fourier transform. For perfect reconstruction, the spectrum analyzer must preserve both the amplitude and phase of each frequency component. These two pieces of information can be represented as a 2-dimensional vector, as a complex number, or as magnitude (amplitude) and phase in polar coordinates. A common technique in signal processing is to consider the squared amplitude, or power; in this case the resulting plot is referred to as a power spectrum.
In practice, nearly all software and electronic devices that generate frequency spectra apply a fast Fourier transform (FFT), which is a specific mathematical approximation to the full integral solution. Formally stated, the FFT is a method for computing the discrete Fourier transform of a sampled signal.
Because of reversibility, the Fourier transform is called a representation of the function, in terms of frequency instead of time; thus, it is a frequency domain representation. Linear operations that could be performed in the time domain have counterparts that can often be performed more easily in the frequency domain. Frequency analysis also simplifies the understanding and interpretation of the effects of various time-domain operations, both linear and non-linear. For instance, only non-linear or time-variant operations can create new frequencies in the frequency spectrum.
The Fourier transform of a stochastic (random) waveform (noise) is also random. Some kind of averaging is required in order to create a clear picture of the underlying frequency content (frequency distribution). Typically, the data is divided into time-segments of a chosen duration, and transforms are performed on each one. Then the magnitude or (usually) squared-magnitude components of the transforms are summed into an average transform. This is a very common operation performed on digitally sampled time-domain data, using the discrete Fourier transform. This type of processing is called Welch's method. When the result is flat, it is commonly referred to as white noise. However, such processing techniques often reveal spectral content even among data which appears noisy in the time domain.
See also
- Frequency estimation
- Electromagnetic spectrum
- Spectrogram
References
- ↑ Alexander, Charles; Sadiku, Matthew (2004). Fundamentals of Electric Circuits (Second ed.). McGraw-Hill. p. 761. ISBN 0-07-249350-X. "The frequency spectrum of a signal consists of the plots of the amplitudes and phases of the harmonics versus frequency."
- ↑ "white noise definition". yourdictionary.com.
External links
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