def detect_outlier(magnitude, outlier_threshold):
    """
    Convenience function to check if any of the magnitudes surpass the
    threshold to mark this date as being an outlier

    This is used to mask out values from current or future processing

    Args:
        magnitude: float, magnitude of change at a given moment in time
        outlier_threshold: threshold value

    Returns:
        bool: True if these spectral values should be omitted
    """
    return magnitude > outlier_threshold