An Introduction to Spatio-Temporal Statistics: There Is No History Without Geography (and Vice Versa!)

• Activity Number: 45
• Type: Invited
• Date/Time: Sunday, July 31, 2016 : 4:00 PM to 5:50 PM
• Sponsor: ASA
• Author(s): Christopher Wikle*
• Companies: University of Missouri

Abstract

Spatio-temporal statistical models are increasingly being used across a wide variety of scientific disciplines to describe and predict spatially explicit processes that evolve over time. Although descriptive models that approach this problem from the second-order (covariance) perspective are important, many real-world processes are dynamic, and it can be more efficient in such cases to characterize the associated spatio-temporal dependence by the use of dynamical models. One of the goals of this introductory overview is to establish connections between these approaches and to discuss their utility to modern high-dimensional data analysis. The talk will touch on basic exploratory methods as well as scientific motivation for spatio-temporal models and various ways to accommodate dependence and uncertainty. Examples will be drawn from the environmental sciences and federal statistics.