Demystifying Piecewise and Localized Scatter Correction Methods

ABSTRACT Multiplicative scatter is a common source of noise in near‐infrared spectroscopy and other related instrumental techniques. A wide variety of methods are commonly used for the correction of multiplicative scatter. However, the majority of such methods assume that the parameters that describe the scatter are constant throughout the measured spectrum, which is often not the case. This work investigates a family of methods that perform scatter correction using local regions of neighboring wavelengths in order to better account for wavelength‐dependent scattering. The methods in question are piecewise standard normal variate, localized standard normal variate, piecewise multiplicative scatter correction, and localized multiplicative scatter correction. This work describes the theoretical and algorithmic foundations of the family of local region‐based scatter correction methods and compares their application and optimization at a qualitative and quantitative level using several datasets.