Non-stationary Extreme Value Analysis: a simplified approach for Earth science applications
Abstract. Statistical approaches to study extreme events require by definition long time series of data. The climate is subject to natural and anthropogenic variations at different temporal scales, leaving their footprint on the frequency and intensity of climatic and hydrological extremes, therefore assumption of stationarity is violated and alternative methods to conventional stationary Extreme Value Analysis (EVA) need to be adopted. In this study we introduce the Transformed-Stationary (TS) methodology for non-stationary EVA. This approach consists in (i) transforming a non-stationary time series into a stationary one to which the stationary EVA theory can be applied; and (ii) reverse-transforming the result into a non-stationary extreme value distribution. As a transformation we propose and discuss a simple time-varying normalization of the signal and show that it allows a comprehensive formulation of non stationary GEV/GPD models with constant shape parameter. A validation of the methodology is carried out on time series of significant wave height, residual water level, and river discharge, which show varying degrees of long-term and seasonal variability. The results from the proposed approach are comparable with the ones from (a) a stationary EVA on quasi-stationary slices of non stationary series and (b) the previously applied non stationary EVA approach. However, the proposed technique comes with advantages in both cases, as in contrast to (a) it uses the whole time horizon of the series for the estimation of the extremes, allowing for a more accurate estimation of large return levels; and with respect to (b) it decouples the detection of non-stationary patterns from the fitting of the extreme values distribution. As a result the steps of the analysis are simplified and intermediate diagnostics are possible. In particular the transformation can be carried out by means of simple statistical techniques such as low-pass filters based on running mean and standard deviation, and the fitting procedure is a stationary one with a few degrees of freedom and easy to implement and control. An open-source MATLAB toolbox has been developed to cover this methodology, available at https://bitbucket.org/menta78/tseva.