The effect of dead time on randomly sampled power spectral estimates

Abstract

We investigate power spectra of a randomly sampled stationary stochastic signal, e.g. a spatial component of a turbulent velocity. We extend the methods of previous authors that basically assumed point or delta function sampling by including features characteristic of real measurement systems. We consider both the effect on the measured spectrum of a finite sampling time, i.e., a finite time during which the signal is acquired, and a finite dead time, that is a time in which the signal processor is busy evaluating a data point and therefore unable to measure a subsequent data point arriving within the dead time delay.