Data Interchange

A single XAS spectrum is a very useful unit of currency for a number of reasons:

• We send data to and receive data from our collaborators
• We publish individual spectra in journal articles
• We extract XAS spectra from large, complex, multi-spectral data sets
• We write web-based and desktop applications (for instance, a standards database) that traffic in single spectra
• We write data analysis software that needs to reliably import data that comes from many sources.

Conventional XAS

1. In a conventional XAS experiment, we measure a sample somewhere between 2 and 10,000 scans, possibly requiring dead-time or other corrections
2. Some data processing happens to correct, calibrate, and/or align the data
3. Those scans are then merged into a single spectrum that becomes our unit of currency