Abstract: A method and apparatus for compression and filtering of data associated with spectrometry. The method and apparatus serves to recognize peak events and filter data associated with background noise, thereby reducing the volume of data to be transferred to storage and the data transfer rate required for storing the desired data. The method of the present invention monitors the value of each data point as it is encountered and compares it to the previously encountered data to determine whether it is on or very near a peak. The y values for each data point are continuously summed and averaged to determine the average background level. The deviation .delta..sub.i is determined for each subsequent data point and is used to determine a threshold. Each subsequent data point is compared to the threshold and, if found to be above the threshold, is assumed to be part of or very near a peak. At this point, the averaging is stopped until a subsequent data point is determined to be below the threshold.