Parabolic Fit
The parabolic peak center procedure is based on a moving three point triplet that attempts to fit an inverted parabola. The three positions measured are the middle, high and low positions. The middle position is initially the nominal peak position and the high and low positions are offset from the middle position based on the value of the Peaking Start Size, which is calculated using the process described in the interval peaking procedure above. Ideally the Peaking Start Size calculation should be adjusted to yield an offset which places the high and low positions at a position which produces approximately 1/2 the maximum intensity of the peak, for a more precise parabolic fit.
The peak center procedure then determines if the high and low position intensities are at least one standard deviation less than the middle position intensity. If the three intensities meet this criteria, the program calculates the centroid of a parabola based on the count-position data triplet. The results of the centroid peak fit can be viewed by placing the program into "Debug Mode" under the Output menu.
If the data cannot be fit to a parabola, the middle position is shifted by an amount equal to 1/2 of the Peaking Start Size and the middle, high and low position intensities are measured again.
If the number of count-position data triplets measured exceeds the "Maximum Peaking Cycles" as defined in the Peak/Scan Option dialog, the program terminates the peak center procedure with an error.