Effects of some factors on the performance of a Kalman filter in discrimination of closely spaced overlapping signals were investigated. The resoln. power of the filter for overlapping lines can be strengthened by reduction of the step size in scans. The min. peak separation of two lines generally equals two to three times the step size in scans. Significant difference between the profiles of the anal. and interfering lines and multiple lines from matrix in the spectral window of the anal. line are very helpful for the Kalman filter to discern closely spaced anal. and interfering signals correctly, which allow the filter to resolve the line pair with very small peak distance or even the entirely coincident lines.1

Key words: ICP-ATOMIC EMISSION SPECTROMETRY, SPECTRAL LINES, OVERLAPPING PEAKS, KALMAN FILTERING