Very Good,No Highlights or Markup,all pages are intact.

Climate is a paradigm of a complex system. Analysing climate data is an exciting challenge, which is increased by non-normal distributional shape, serial dependence, uneven spacing and timescale uncertainties. This book presents bootstrap resampling as a computing-intensive method able to meet the challenge. It shows the bootstrap to perform reliably in the most important statistical estimation techniques: regression, spectral analysis, extreme values and correlation. This book is written for climatologists and applied statisticians. It explains step by step the bootstrap algorithms (including novel adaptions) and methods for confidence interval construction. It tests the accuracy of the algorithms by means of Monte Carlo experiments. It analyses a large array of climate time series, giving a detailed account on the data and the associated climatological questions. This makes the book self-contained for graduate students and researchers.

This introduction to wavelet analysis 'from the ground level and up', and to wavelet-based statistical analysis of time series focuses on practical discrete time techniques, with detailed descriptions of the theory and algorithms needed to understand and implement the discrete wavelet transforms. Numerous examples illustrate the techniques on actual time series. The many embedded exercises - with complete solutions provided in the Appendix - allow readers to use the book for self-guided study. Additional exercises can be used in a classroom setting. A Web site offers access to the time series and wavelets used in the book, as well as information on accessing software in S-Plus and other languages. Students and researchers wishing to use wavelet methods to analyze time series will find this book essential.

ELlA M. LEIBOWITZ Director, Wise Observatory Chair, Scientific Organizing Committee The international symposium on "Astronomical Time Series" was held at the Tel Aviv University campus in Tel Aviv, from December 30 1996 to January 11997. It was organized in order to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the Florence and George Wise Observatory (WO) operated by Tel Aviv University. The site of the 1 meter telescope of the observatory is near the town of Mitzpe-Ramon, some 220 km south of Tel Aviv, at the center of the Israeli Negev highland. There were two major reasons for the choice of Time Series as the sub ject matter for our symposium. One is mainly concerned with the subject matter itself, and one is related particularly to the Wise Observatory. There is hardly any doubt that astronomical time series are among the most ancient concepts in human civilization and culture. One can even say that astronomical time series preceeded astronomy itself, as the impression of the day /night cycle on Earth is probably the first and most fundamental effect that impress a. human being, or, in fact, most living creatures on this planet. An echo of this idea. can be heard in the Biblical story of Creation, where the concept of night and day preceeds the creation of the astronomical objects.

Modern astronomers encounter a vast range of challenging statistical problems, yet few are familiar with the wealth of techniques developed by statisticians. Conversely, few statisticians deal with the compelling problems confronted in astronomy. Astrostatistics bridges this gap. Authored by a statistician-astronomer team, it provides professionals and advanced students in both fields with exposure to issues of mutual interest. In the first half of the book the authors introduce statisticians to stellar, galactic, and cosmological astronomy and discuss the complex character of astronomical data. For astronomers, they introduce the statistical principles of nonparametrics, multivariate analysis, time series analysis, density estimation, and resampling methods. The second half of the book is organized by statistical topic. Each chapter contains examples of problems encountered astronomical research and highlights methodological issues. The final chapter explores some controversial issues in astronomy that have a strong statistical component. The authors provide an extensive bibliography and references to software for implementing statistical methods. The "marriage" of astronomy and statistics is a natural one and benefits both disciplines. Astronomers need the tools and methods of statistics to interpret the vast amount of data they generate, and the issues related to astronomical data pose intriguing challenges for statisticians. Astrostatistics paves the way to improved statistical analysis of astronomical data and provides a common ground for future collaboration between the two fields.

This volume contains a selection of chapters based on papers to be presented at the Fifth Statistical Challenges in Modern Astronomy Symposium. The symposium will be held June 13-15th at Penn State University. Modern astronomical research faces a vast range of statistical issues which have spawned a revival in methodological activity among astronomers. The Statistical Challenges in Modern Astronomy V conference will bring astronomers and statisticians together to discuss methodological issues of common interest. Time series analysis, image analysis, Bayesian methods, Poisson processes, nonlinear regression, maximum likelihood, multivariate classification, and wavelet and multiscale analyses are all important themes to be covered in detail. Many problems will be introduced at the conference in the context of large-scale astronomical projects including LIGO, AXAF, XTE, Hipparcos, and digitized sky surveys.

Modern astronomical research faces a vast range of statistical issues which have spawned a revival in methodological activity among astronomers. The Statistical Challenges in Modern Astronomy II conference brought astronomers and statisticians together to discuss methodological issues of common interest. Time series analysis, image analysis, Bayesian methods, Poisson processes, nonlinear regression, maximum likelihood, multivariate classification, and wavelet and multiscale analyses were all important themes. Many problems were introduced at the conference in the context of large-scale astronomical projects including LIGO, AXAF, XTE, Hipparcos, and digitised sky surveys. As such, this volume will be of interest to researchers and advanced students in both fields - astronomers seeking exposure to recent developments in statistics, and statisticians interested in confronting new problems.