Subpeaks in the Brillouin loss spectra of distributed fiber-optic sensors were observed for what is believed to be the first time and studied. We discovered that the Fourier spectrum of the pulsed signal and the offresonance oscillation both contributed to subpeaks. The off-resonance oscillation at frequency vertical bar v- v(B)vertical bar is the oscillation in the Brillouin time domain when beat frequency v of the two counterpropagating laser beams does not match local Brillouin frequency Pp. This study is important in differentiating the subpeaks from actual strain-temperature peaks. (c) 2005 Optical Society of America.