Nonparametric autocovariance estimation from censored time series by Gaussian imputation

One of the most frequently used methods to model the autocovariance function of a second-order stationary time series is to use the parametric framework of autoregressive and moving average models developed by Box and Jenkins. However, such parametric models, though very flexible, may not always be...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of Nonparametric Statistics
Main Authors: Park, Jung Wook, Genton, Marc G., Ghosh, Sujit K.
Format: Text
Language:English
Published: 2009
Subjects:
Online Access:http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2804993
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20072705
https://doi.org/10.1080/10485250802570964
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Summary:One of the most frequently used methods to model the autocovariance function of a second-order stationary time series is to use the parametric framework of autoregressive and moving average models developed by Box and Jenkins. However, such parametric models, though very flexible, may not always be adequate to model autocovariance functions with sharp changes. Furthermore, if the data do not follow the parametric model and are censored at a certain value, the estimation results may not be reliable. We develop a Gaussian imputation method to estimate an autocovariance structure via nonparametric estimation of the autocovariance function in order to address both censoring and incorrect model specification. We demonstrate the effectiveness of the technique in terms of bias and efficiency with simulations under various rates of censoring and underlying models. We describe its application to a time series of silicon concentrations in the Arctic.