How to measure signal to noise (S/N) of a set of data in Excel?

[Muk]

Hi,

I am dealing with sets of real data and as would be expected there are lots
of 'noise'. I would like to set a baseline so that calculations are
performed only on the data above the baseline. I know that the kurtosis
function shows how "peaked" the data is but I am looking for a data sieve
that ignores the random noise and accepts the real data (say anything five
times higher than random noise).

Thanks

 

[Jim Thomlinson]

My preference for this is to use Standard Deviation. At +/- 2 standard
deviations you will be excluding the 5% of the data that most significantly
varies from the mean. That removes the big anomolies but leaves the majority
of the data in pool.

 

[Luke M]

A common way is to use an array* function with an IF statement, such as:

=SUM(IF(A2:A100>5,A2:A100))

This would then only SUM the numbers in A2:A100 that are > 5.

*Array functions are confirmed using Ctrl+Shift+Enter, not just Enter.