Chapter 6Analyzing Categorical Time Series
In Part II of this book, we shall be concerned with categorical processes
; that is, the range
of
is not only assumed to be discrete, but also to be qualitative, consisting of a finite number
of categories, with
(state space). The time series
stemming from this kind of process are referred to as categorical time series. In some applications, the range of
exhibits at least a natural ordering; it is then referred to as an ordinal range. In other cases, not even such an inherent order exists (a nominal range). In Brenčič et al. (2015), for instance, time series about atmospheric circulation patterns are analyzed. Each day is assigned 1 out of 41 categories, called elementary circulation mechanisms (ECMs); although there are some relationships ...