Spectral averaging without phase information

1. What is spectral averaging?
2. Can you average an FFT?
3. What are the methods of spectral analysis?

What is spectral averaging?

Spectral averaging is a different approach and is a type of ensemble averaging, which means that the “sample” and “mean value” are both spectra. The “mean value” spectrum results from averaging “sample” spectra. It isn't quite that simple though, because of the nature of the spectra.

Can you average an FFT?

You can perform averaged measurements on an FFT channel to improve measurement accuracy or to help compensate for a low signal-to-noise ratio.

What are the methods of spectral analysis?

Spectral analysis is done based on the nonparametric methods and the parametric methods. Nonparametric methods are based on dividing the time-domain data into segments, applying Fourier transform on each segment, computing the squared-magnitude of the transform, and summing and averaging the transform.