METHODS AND APPARATUS FOR PERFORMING SPECTRAL CALIBRATION

A system performs two types of spectral calibration. For the first type, the system collects data from several spectrally-distinguishable molecular speci es and creates a data matrix (310). It then identifies regions in the data matr ix that have spectral response characteristics of at least one of the molecular species [330], determines a set of pure component spectral responses from th e identified regions [330], groups similar pure component spectral responses into clusters [340], determines a representative spectral response for each cluster [350], and correlates the representative spectral response for each cluster with one of the molecular species [380]. For the second type of calibration, the system identifies binary mixture regions within the data matrix [715], determines pairs of the binary mixture regions that contain on e common spectral response [720], identifies a component that represents the o ne common spectral response using data in the determined pairs, groups the one common spectral response from each of the determined pairs into clusters [725], determines a representative spectral response for each cluster [730], and correlates the representative spectral response for each cluster with on e of the molecular species [750].