In Fall 2010 we meet on Mondays and Tuesdays at 14:15-18:30 in the
Computer Teaching Lab of the CLAMV (Computational Laboratory for
Analysis, Modeling, and Visualization) located in the basement of West
Hall. The first mandatory computer lab session of this course will take
place on Tuesday, 7 September 2010 when the students will get
an introduction to the LaTeX typesetting system.
To solve the computer assignments, basic experience with IDL is
required. Students who want to refresh their IDL knowledge or do not
have any experience with IDL at all are invited to participate in the
introductory session on Monday, 6 September 2010.
Regarding the organization and the grading scheme of the course,
we distinguish two phases.
Guided lab session phase (six sessions, calendar weeks 37-39).
Examination phase (two sessions).
Course description
In geosciences and space physics, data often come in the form of time
series. This course covers important approaches to time series
analysis such the statistical description of data, correlation and
regression, auto-correlation and cross-correlation functions, Fourier
analysis, spectrum estimation, filtering, and modeling of data. Short
reviews of the underlying theory are embedded in hands-on computer lab
sessions where the students familiarize with the practice of time
series analysis and interpretation. They learn to assess the potential
and the limitations of the analysis methods, and apply them to
measurements.
Course organization and grading
The guided lab sessions contribute 50% towards the final grade. Here
the students are exposed to a spectrum of analysis tools, and they
have to apply them in order to solve their computer assignments.
Attendance and active participation is mandatory in five guided
lab sessions, each of them contributing 10% towards the final
grade. Attendance will be checked at the beginning of each session.
Active participation will have to be reported by submitting a
completed lab participation sheet at the end of the sessions.
This part of the course consists of two exams.
Each exam contributes 25% towards the final grade.
| Class dates | Topics (tentative) | Instructions/information sheet | Participation sheet | Remarks |
| September 6 | Getting started with IDL | --- | --- | |
| September 7 | The LaTeX typesetting system | PDF, LaTeX | --- | |
| September 13 | Data file preparation and preprocessing | PDF, LaTeX | --- | |
| September 14 | Statistical description of data | PDF, LaTeX | --- | |
| September 20 | Fourier transformation | PDF, LaTeX | --- | |
| September 21 | Spectral analysis | PDF, LaTeX | --- | |
| September 27 | Basic aspects of time series filtering | PDF, LaTeX | --- | |
| September 28 | Modeling of data and least squares | PDF, LaTeX | --- | |
| October 4 | Computer assignments review and sample exam | PDF, LaTeX | --- | |
| October 5 | No lab session | --- | --- | --- |
| October 11 | Computer assignments exam | PDF, LaTeX | --- | |
| October 12 | Data analysis theory review | --- | West Hall 2 & 1 | |
| October 26 | Data analysis theory exam | --- | --- | West Hall 2 |
The theoretical foundations of the analysis techniques addressed here are summarized in the document entitled Theoretical Concepts in Time Series Analysis, available from this website in PDF.
The recommended textbook for this computer lab course is
David Gubbins, Time Series Analysis and Inverse Theory for Geophysicists, Cambridge University Press (first published 2004, third printing 2008).
Here is a small selection of additional literature.
Data repositories
The data analysis techniques taught in the course can be
applied to a variety of data in the Earth and Space Sciences.
Here is a selection of links to data repositories and the like.
The Space Physics Data Facility hosted at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center comprises a number of public data archives, analysis interfaces, and visualization tools.
A large number of different climate indices are provided by the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), see also the web page of their National Climatic Data Center (NCDC). Part of these data is free for all users, see their Most Popular Products page.
GAVO is a BMBF sponsored data archiving project to support modern astronomical research in Germany. The Millenium Run Database allows to carry out searches (SQL queries) in the output files of cosmological simulations. The results may be visualized using IDL.
The GMT system to apply the basic analysis techniques taught in the guided lab session phase of these course to spatially distributed data, in particular, to geographic and Cartesian data sets. See, for example, section 7.3 of the GMT documentation on spectral estimation which uses the GRDFFT routine in GMT to perform Fourier filtering.
The network of World Data Centers (WDC) has its roots in the observational campaigns of the 1957-1958 International Geophysical Year (IGY). Currently more than 50 WDCs are spread over 12 countries. They offer a broad spectrum of solar, geophysical, and environmental data, see the list of WDCs.