Cockpit: "Time Series Diversity"

Identify times of high diversity in a set of otherwise similar time series. For example, periods where forecasts of the same target variable disagree, or one of many correlating sensors suddenly reports something completely different.

Pro This cockpit is only available in Visplore Professional.


Overview

This cockpit assesses the diversity of time series by computing the point-wise standard deviation: Say you have 6 time series, then this is the standard deviation of 6 values at a time. The time series of such point (in time)-wise standard deviations serves as a measure for the diversity of the time series, is used throughout the views, and can be seen as explicit time series plot in the view Standard deviation as time series.

  1. Global Summary of Point-wise diversity: Numerical summary of the point-wise standard deviation (Mean, Min, Max).
  2. Time Series aggregated per Categories: Shows the development of temporal or categorical aggregates of the time series, e.g. monthly averages or annual sums.
  3. Drill Down for point-wise diversity: View the point-wise standard deviation aggregated according to time aspects or categories, and select time ranges for a detailed view by clicking on them.
  4. Time Series Views of Point-wise diversity: Time series plots of the raw time series (first tab), point-wise bands of mean +/- deviation time series (second tab), and the point-wise standard deviation as time series plot (third tab).
  5. Table: A table-like view of single values that can be shown on demand.



Global Summary of Point-wise diversity


Here you can read the numerical values for the point-wise standard deviation (Mean, Min, Max). If you have selected data, this calculation only takes into account the selected data (= Focus).


Time Series aggregated per Categories


This view shows the development of temporal or categorical aggregates of the time series, e.g. monthly averages or annual totals.

Change the aggregation interval by clicking the x-axis label and clicking the drop-down icon. Change the statistical value of the aggregation by clicking the y-axis label on the right side of the view, and clicking the drop-down icon.


Drill Down for point-wise diversity

These views show the point-wise time series diversity aggregated for individual periods, using colors. Each colored cell (or bar) aggregates the data that falls within the corresponding (combination of) categories, by computing the average or other statistics of the deviation values per category.

The views can be used to perform selections of categories by clicking the category labels, which defines a focus for the other views. If a focus was already defined in other views, the Drill-Down views only consider the data records of the focus.

Using other statistics than the mean diversity for coloring: click the label of the color legend, and choose from several statistics of the point-wise diversity values.


Time Series Views of Point-wise diversity


Three time series plots indicating the diversity of the time series:

Selection: Selecting time periods by dragging the left mouse button puts them into focus for the other views.

Zooming: Drag a rectangle with the right mouse button to zoom in. Alternatively, use CTRL + mouse wheel to zoom in or out. Once zoomed in, there is a button in the bottom-left corner of the view with arrows pointing outwards. Click it to zoom out completely again.

The view offers several options when clicking the view title. The most important ones are:


Table ('Focus data records')


A table showing the single values. Only considers the data records in focus. Click the header of a column to sort the table by it. To change the set of displayed columns, click the header "Shown: 103 of 210 data attributes". Click single rows or drag a line with the left mouse button to select records, putting them into focus.

Exporting: A key use case of the table is exporting a selected subset of the data. To export the current state of the table, click the view title "Focus data records", and then "Data export".


Roles supported by this cockpit


The following roles can be given to data attibutes in this cockpit. Use the icon in the toolbar to adjust them.



License Statement for the Photovoltaic and Weather dataset used for Screenshots:
"Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0."
Source of Dataset (in its original form): https://data.london.gov.uk/dataset/photovoltaic--pv--solar-panel-energy-generation-data
License: UK Open Government Licence OGL 3: http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/3/
Dataset was modified (e.g. columns renamed) for easier communication of Visplore USPs.