[R] loess smoothing

[rkevinburton at charter.net]

Hello,

In reading the loess description I see:

 span: the parameter alpha which controls the degree of smoothing.

The default seems to be 0.75. Would it be possible to expand on this decription so I can avoid trail and error? Can I increase this pass 'span' > 1? Qualitatively to what degree changing this value affects the smoothing of the data?

Thank you.

Kevin