Statistical Characterization of PIXL Trace Element Detection Limits

ResourceType

Dataset

DOI

https://doi.org/10.7936/5bc9-0k33

Grant/Award Number and Agency

NASA M2020 Participating Scientist

funderName

National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)

awardNumber

Grant #80NSSC21K0328

Abstract

Trace element detection and mapping are some of the key capabilities of the Planetary Instrument for X-ray Lithochemistry (PIXL) on board the Mars 2020 rover Perseverance. However, poor signal-to-noise ratios due to the short integration times required to make high-spatial-resolution map scans operationally feasible raise the possibility of misidentifying statistical noise as a signal from a trace element, which can cause a large number of false detections of a trace element among the hundreds to thousands of data points in each PIXL scan. Here, we apply a statistical technique to quantify the likelihood of such misidentifications and determine what concentration of a trace element must be present to reach statistical confidence in a detection. This approach is anticipated to be applicable both when analyzing existing PIXL data to ensure that noise is not misinterpreted as signals from trace elements and operationally as a tool to inform scan parameters when trace elements of interest are anticipated to be present.

ORCID

https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4646-2852

Rights

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 License.

Size

68 MB

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Publication Date

2023