In accordance with a representative embodiment, a method for reducing the effect of jitter in a sampled signal is described. The method comprises: obtaining a frequency-domain data set representing the sampled signal; obtaining an average sideband amplitude distribution generated by jitter around one or more principal frequencies of the signal; estimating the jitter phases for sidebands generated by jitter in the frequency-domain data set; subtracting a jitter contribution characterized by the average sideband amplitude distribution and the estimated jitter phases from the data record.