apodization

noun

ap·​o·​di·​za·​tion ˌa-pə-də-ˈzā-shən How to pronounce apodization (audio)
-ˌdī-ˈzā-
electrical engineering
: the process of altering a signal (such as one emitted by an electrical sensor) to make its mathematical description smoother and more easily manipulatable
The system also implements a standard suite of spectral estimation algorithms. The user can … use apodization with different weighting functions or compensate for distortions arising from equal data spacing.Physics Today, March 1993
apodize transitive verb
apodizes; apodized; apodizing
Amplitude and phase errors tend to increase at high spatial frequencies, so we weighted the data with a function that is 1 at a frequency of 0 and falls to 0 at a spatial frequency of 2.8 cycles per arc second. A similar function was used to apodize the visibilities before reconstructing the images. R. R. Howell et al., Science, 4 Oct. 1985

Word History

Etymology

borrowed from French apodisation, from a- a- entry 2 + pod- pod- (alluding to the pieds "feet" produced by diffraction in an optical image) + -isation -ization

First Known Use

1964, in the meaning defined above

Time Traveler
The first known use of apodization was in 1964

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Cite this Entry

“Apodization.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/apodization. Accessed 29 Mar. 2024.

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