The following terms for MS-related data are used in this tutorial and the OpenMS class documentation:
raw data point
An unprocessed data point as measured by the instrument.
peak
Data point that is the result of some kind of peak detection algorithm. Peaks are often referred to as sticks or centroideddata as well.
spectrum / scan
A mass spectrum containing raw data points (rawspectrum) or peaks (peakspectrum).
Part of a raw spectrum (blue) with three peaks (red)
map
A collection of spectra generated by a HPLC-MS experiment. Depending on what kinds of spectra are contained, we use the terms rawmap or peakmap. Often a map is also referred to as an experiment.
feature
The signal caused by a chemical entity detected in an HPLC-MS experiment, typically a peptide.
Peak map with a marked feature (red)
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