Frequency based criterion for distinguishing tonal and noisy spectral components

A frequency-based criterion for distinguishing tonal and noisy spectral components is proposed. For considered spectral local maximum two instantaneous frequency estimates are determined and the difference between them is used in order to verify whether component is noisy or tonal. Since one of the estimators was invented specially for this application its properties are deeply examined. The proposed criterion is applied to the stationary and nonstationary sinusoids in order to examine its efficiency.