where \\(X(f)\\) is the Fourier transform of the time signal \\(x(t)\\):
\begin{equation}
X(f) = \int\_{-\infty}^{\infty} x(t) e^{-2\pi j f t} dt
\end{equation}
## Power Spectral Density function (PSD) {#power-spectral-density-function--psd}
The power distribution over frequency of a time signal \\(x(t)\\) is described by the PSD denoted the \\(S\_x(f)\\).
A PSD is a power density function with units \\([\text{SI}^2/Hz]\\), meaning that the area underneath the PSD curve equals the power (units \\([\text{SI}^2]\\)) of the signal (SI is the unit of the signal, e.g. \\(m/s\\)).
Using the definition of signal power \\(\bar{x^2}\\) and Parseval's theorem, we can link power in the time domain with power in the frequency domain:
where \\(X\_T(f)\\) denotes the Fourier transform of \\(x\_T(t)\\), which equals \\(x(t)\\) on the interval \\(-T \le t \le T\\) and is zero outside this interval.
This term is referred to as the two-sided spectral density:
For discrete time signals, the one-sided PSD estimate is defined as:
\begin{equation}
\hat{S}(f\_k) = \frac{|X\_L(f\_k)|^2}{L T\_s}
\end{equation}
where \\(L\\) equals the number of time samples and \\(T\_s\\) the sample time, \\(X\_L(f\_k)\\) is the N-point discrete Fourier Transform of the discrete time signal \\(x\_L[n]\\) containing \\(L\\) samples:
{{<figuresrc="/ox-hugo/psd_manual_example.png"caption="<span class=\"figure-number\">Figure 1: </span>Amplitude Spectral Density with manual computation">}}
{{<figuresrc="/ox-hugo/psd_comp_pwelch_manual_example.png"caption="<span class=\"figure-number\">Figure 2: </span>Amplitude Spectral Density with manual computation">}}