This brief is a clear, concise description of the main techniques of time series analysis —stationary, autocorrelation, mutual information, fractal and multifractal analysis, chaos analysis, etc.— as they are applied to the influence of wind speed and solar radiation on the production of electrical energy from these renewable sources. The problem of implementing prediction models is addressed by using the embedding-phase-space approach: a powerful technique for the modeling of complex systems. Readers are also guided in applying the main machine learning techniques for classification of the patterns hidden in their time series and so will be able to perform statistical analyses that are not possible by using conventional techniques. The conceptual exposition avoids unnecessary mathematical details and focuses on concrete examples in order to ensure a better understanding of the proposed techniques. Results are well-illustrated by figures and tables.

Methods of nonlinear time series analysis are discussed from a dynamical systems perspective on the one hand, and from a statistical perspective on the other. After giving an informal overview of the theory of dynamical systems relevant to the analysis of deterministic time series, time series generated by nonlinear stochastic systems and spatio-temporal dynamical systems are considered. Several statistical methods for the analysis of nonlinear time series are presented and illustrated with applications to physical and physiological time series.

The understanding of dynamical processes in the complex system “Earth” requires the appropriate analysis of a large amount of data from observations and/or model simulations. In this volume, modern nonlinear approaches are introduced and used to study specifiic questions relevant to present-day geoscience. The approaches include spatio-temporal methods, time-frequency analysis, dimension analysis (in particular, for multivariate data), nonlinear statistical decomposition, methods designed for treating data with uneven sampling or missing values, nonlinear correlation and synchronization analysis, surrogate data techniques, network approaches, and nonlinear methods of noise reduction. This book aims to present a collection of state-of-the-art scientific contributions used in current studies by some of the world's leading scientists in this field.

This book provides an overview of the current state-of-the-art of nonlinear time series analysis, richly illustrated with examples, pseudocode algorithms and real-world applications. Avoiding a “theorem-proof” format, it shows concrete applications on a variety of empirical time series. The book can be used in graduate courses in nonlinear time series and at the same time also includes interesting material for more advanced readers. Though it is largely self-contained, readers require an understanding of basic linear time series concepts, Markov chains and Monte Carlo simulation methods. The book covers time-domain and frequency-domain methods for the analysis of both univariate and multivariate (vector) time series. It makes a clear distinction between parametric models on the one hand, and semi- and nonparametric models/methods on the other. This offers the reader the option of concentrating exclusively on one of these nonlinear time series analysis methods. To make the book as user friendly as possible, major supporting concepts and specialized tables are appended at the end of every chapter. In addition, each chapter concludes with a set of key terms and concepts, as well as a summary of the main findings. Lastly, the book offers numerous theoretical and empirical exercises, with answers provided by the author in an extensive solutions manual.