State space models

walker: Bayesian Generalized Linear Models with Time-Varying Coefficients

Bayesian generalized linear models with time-varying coefficients as in Helske (2020, arXiv:2009.07063). Gaussian, Poisson, and binomial observations are supported. The Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) computations are done using Hamiltonian Monte Carlo provided by Stan, using a state space representation of the model in order to marginalise over the coefficients for efficient sampling. For non-Gaussian models, the package uses the importance sampling type estimators based on approximate marginal MCMC as in Vihola, Helske, Franks (2020, doi:10.

KFAS: Kalman Filter and Smoother for Exponential Family State Space Models

State space modelling is an efficient and flexible framework for statistical inference of a broad class of time series and other data. KFAS includes computationally efficient functions for Kalman filtering, smoothing, forecasting, and simulation of multivariate exponential family state space models, with observations from Gaussian, Poisson, binomial, negative binomial, and gamma distributions. See the paper by Helske (2017) doi:10.18637/jss.v078.i10 for details.

tsPI: Improved Prediction Intervals for ARIMA Processes and Structural Time Series

Prediction intervals for ARIMA and structural time series models using importance sampling approach with uninformative priors for model parameters, leading to more accurate coverage probabilities in frequentist sense. Instead of sampling the future observations and hidden states of the state space representation of the model, only model parameters are sampled, and the method is based solving the equations corresponding to the conditional coverage probability of the prediction intervals. This makes method relatively fast compared to for example MCMC methods, and standard errors of prediction limits can also be computed straightforwardly.

KFAS: Exponential Family State Space Models in R

Abstract State space modeling is an efficient and flexible method for statistical inference of a broad class of time series and other data. This paper describes the R package KFAS for state space modeling with the observations from an exponential family, namely Gaussian, Poisson, binomial, negative binomial and gamma distributions. After introducing the basic theory behind Gaussian and non-Gaussian state space models, an illustrative example of Poisson time series forecasting is provided.

Improved frequentist prediction intervals for autoregressive models by simulation

Abstract It is well known that the so-called plug-in prediction intervals for autoregressive processes, with Gaussian disturbances, are too short, i.e. the coverage probabilities fall below the nominal ones. However, simulation experiments show that the formulas borrowed from the ordinary linear regression theory yield one-step prediction intervals, which have coverage probabilities very close to that claimed. From a Bayesian point of view the resulting intervals are posterior predictive intervals when uniform priors are assumed for both autoregressive coefficients and logarithm of the disturbance variance.

Estimating aggregated nutrient fluxes in four Finnish rivers via Gaussian state space models

Abstract Reliable estimates of the nutrient fluxes carried by rivers from land-based sources to the sea are needed for efficient abatement of marine eutrophication. Although nutrient concentrations in rivers generally display large temporal variation, sampling and analysis for nutrients, unlike flow measurements, are rarely performed on a daily basis. The infrequent data calls for ways to reliably estimate the nutrient concentrations of the missing days. Here, we use the Gaussian state space models with daily water flow as a predictor variable to predict missing nutrient concentrations for four agriculturally impacted Finnish rivers.