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Effect of Measurement Noise on Differentiation

Let’'s see what happens when we introduce error into our data.

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Uncertainty Amplification and mitigation

Because noise typically is very high frequency compared to the signal, differentiation will typically amplify the error.

With this in mind, there are several options:

  • Prefilter the data: Apply a moving average, or low-pass filter to reduce high-frequency noise.

  • Regularization: Incorporate a penalty term to smooth the derivatives.

  • Fit an analytical function: Use regression (e.g. least squares) to fit a smooth function, then differentiate analytically.

  • Choose a robust method: Use differentiation methods that are less sensitive to noise, like total variation regularization.