1. A method of correcting for drift in spectrum images resulting from collection signals, comprising: collecting signals resulting from a scan with an excitation source which are registered to x, y pixel positions on a sample; extracting a reference image from a plurality of frames of collected signals; inserting pixel events corresponding to said frame of said reference image into initial pixel locations; indexing forward to a next frame of collected signals and extracting a first correction image using the same signal source as the reference image; validation checking said first correction image to determine if said first correction image is correct, and if said validation checking fails, repeating the method until a non-corrupt correction image is located; and once a valid correction image is located, generating correction vectors for correcting acquired images.