I am trying to use the "findpeaks" function to find the peak in a set of data.

I am trying to use the "findpeaks" function to find the peak in a set of data. I want to better understand how the function works. Please explain what is the purpose of the number "7000" in the line below? It finds several peaks when this number is low. It only finds one when this number is 7000 or higher.

[ymx,idx] = findpeaks(y, 'MinPeakProminence',7000);

Answer 1

[DGM]

The documentation for findpeaks explains it better than I could:

"The prominence of a peak measures how much the peak stands out due to its intrinsic height and its location relative to other peaks. A low isolated peak can be more prominent than one that is higher but is an otherwise unremarkable member of a tall range."

The documentation of the MinPeakProminence KVP:

https://www.mathworks.com/help/signal/ref/findpeaks.html?s_tid=answers_rc2-1_p4_MLT#bufbbs1-MinPeakProminence

An explanation of the prominence algo:

https://www.mathworks.com/help/signal/ref/findpeaks.html?s_tid=answers_rc2-1_p4_MLT#buff2uu