Rbased indices software

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R-based indices software
www.ec.gc.ca
Xuebin Zhang
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Outline

• Indices software
• Why R
• RClimDex, RHtest, FClimDex, FHtest, applications
• Maintenance and updates
• Future

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ClimDex

• Excel based
• Developed by Byron Gleason at NCDC
• Used at Caribbean Regional Climate Change
  Workshop (Jan. 2001)
• Problem in percentile calculation
• Limited by excel environment

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Why R

• Powerful computing environment for statistical
  analysis
• Freely available
• R-code portable across all platforms (Unix,
  MS-Windows, MacOS), no need to make any change
• GUI and command line

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The RClimDex

• Simple GUI
• Retain all ClimDex functions, in additon
• Different formats (text of Excel) of input
• Computes 27 ET indices
• Text or Excel formats output
• Indices and trends plots in PDF
• Run most recent version from within R

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The RClimDex

• Developed in Linux at EC
• User guide in English and Spanish
• Used in all 5 workshops, in MS-Windos
• Used by other individuals
• Iran, China, Australia, and others
• Technical support

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RHtest

• Two-phase regression based (Wang 2003)
• With or without reference series
• GUI and command line
• Easy to use with GUI
• Call R function directly from command line
• New methods being implemented
• Consider auto-correlation
• More accurate false alarm rate for two ends of
  series

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Mass calculation

• RClimdex and RHtest
• R functions available for R users
• FORTRAN codes (FClimDex and FHtest)
• HP, SGI, IBP, Absoft compilers
• Cross checked with R codes

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Future development

• Limited resources
• RHtest and FHtest updated regularly
• RClimDex
• Tailored for the workshops in a short notice
• Need more detailed documentation
• Can add new indices
• Can improve depending on demands
• Grouping indices
• Store indices according to groups
• Other demands