A powder pattern arises in powdered samples where crystallites are randomly oriented relative to the magnetic field so that all molecular orientations are present. In presence of a chemical shift anisotropy interaction, each orientation with respect to the magnetic field gives a different resonance frequency. If enough crystallites are present, all the different contributions overlap continuously and lead to a smooth spectrum.
Fitting of the pattern in a static ssNMR experiment gives information about the shielding tensor, which are often described by the isotropic chemical shift , the chemical shift anisotropy parameter , and the asymmetry parameter .