No Arabic abstract
Analog forecasting is a nonparametric technique introduced by Lorenz in 1969 which predicts the evolution of states of a dynamical system (or observables defined on the states) by following the evolution of the sample in a historical record of observations which most closely resembles the current initial data. Here, we introduce a suite of forecasting methods which improve traditional analog forecasting by combining ideas from kernel methods developed in harmonic analysis and machine learning and state-space reconstruction for dynamical systems. A key ingredient of our approach is to replace single-analog forecasting with weighted ensembles of analogs constructed using local similarity kernels. The kernels used here employ a number of dynamics-dependent features designed to improve forecast skill, including Takens delay-coordinate maps (to recover information in the initial data lost through partial observations) and a directional dependence on the dynamical vector field generating the data. Mathematically, our approach is closely related to kernel methods for out-of-sample extension of functions, and we discuss alternative strategies based on the Nystrom method and the multiscale Laplacian pyramids technique. We illustrate these techniques in applications to forecasting in a low-order deterministic model for atmospheric dynamics with chaotic metastability, and interannual-scale forecasting in the North Pacific sector of a comprehensive climate model. We find that forecasts based on kernel-weighted ensembles have significantly higher skill than the conventional approach following a single analog.
A challenging problem in physics concerns the possibility of forecasting rare but extreme phenomena such as large earthquakes, financial market crashes, and material rupture. A promising line of research involves the early detection of precursory log-periodic oscillations to help forecast extreme events in collective phenomena where discrete scale invariance plays an important role. Here I investigate two distinct approaches towards the general problem of how to detect log-periodic oscillations in arbitrary time series without prior knowledge of the location of the moveable singularity. I first show that the problem has a definite solution in Fourier space, however the technique involved requires an unrealistically large signal to noise ratio. I then show that the quadrature signal obtained via analytic continuation onto the imaginary axis, using the Hilbert transform, necessarily retains the log-periodicities found in the original signal. This finding allows the development of a new method of detecting log-periodic oscillations that relies on calculation of the instantaneous phase of the analytic signal. I illustrate the method by applying it to the well documented stock market crash of 1987. Finally, I discuss the relevance of these findings for parametric rather than nonparametric estimation of critical times.
We propose a nonparametric approach for probabilistic prediction of the AL index trained with AL and solar wind ($v B_z$) data. Our framework relies on the diffusion forecasting technique, which views AL and $ v B_z $ data as observables of an autonomous, ergodic, stochastic dynamical system operating on a manifold. Diffusion forecasting builds a data-driven representation of the Markov semigroup governing the evolution of probability measures of the dynamical system. In particular, the Markov semigroup operator is represented in an orthonormal basis acquired from data using the diffusion maps algorithm and Takens delay embeddings. This representation of the evolution semigroup is used in conjunction with a Bayesian filtering algorithm for forecast initialization to predict the probability that the AL index is less than a user-selected threshold over arbitrary lead times and without requiring exogenous inputs. We find that the model produces skillful forecasts out to at least two-hour leads despite gaps in the training data.
The prediction of wind speed is very important when dealing with the production of energy through wind turbines. In this paper, we show a new nonparametric model, based on semi-Markov chains, to predict wind speed. Particularly we use an indexed semi-Markov model that has been shown to be able to reproduce accurately the statistical behavior of wind speed. The model is used to forecast, one step ahead, wind speed. In order to check the validity of the model we show, as indicator of goodness, the root mean square error and mean absolute error between real data and predicted ones. We also compare our forecasting results with those of a persistence model. At last, we show an application of the model to predict financial indicators like the Internal Rate of Return, Duration and Convexity.
Recent studies demonstrate that trends in indicators extracted from measured time series can indicate approaching to an impending transition. Kendalls {tau} coefficient is often used to study the trend of statistics related to the critical slowing down phenomenon and other methods to forecast critical transitions. Because statistics are estimated from time series, the values of Kendalls {tau} are affected by parameters such as window size, sample rate and length of the time series, resulting in challenges and uncertainties in interpreting results. In this study, we examine the effects of different parameters on the distribution of the trend obtained from Kendalls {tau}, and provide insights into how to choose these parameters. We also suggest the use of the non-parametric Mann-Kendall test to evaluate the significance of a Kendalls {tau} value. The non-parametric test is computationally much faster compared to the traditional parametric ARMA test.
Much recent empirical evidence shows that textit{community structure} is ubiquitous in the real-world networks. In this Letter, we propose a growth model to create scale-free networks with the tunable strength (noted by $Q$) of community structure and investigate the influence of community strength upon the collective synchronization induced by SIRS epidemiological process. Global and local synchronizability of the system is studied by means of an order parameter and the relevant finite-size scaling analysis is provided. The numerical results show that, a phase transition occurs at $Q_csimeq0.835$ from global synchronization to desynchronization and the local synchronization is weakened in a range of intermediately large $Q$. Moreover, we study the impact of mean degree $<k>$ upon synchronization on scale-free networks.