Data Analysis & Simulation

Archive for April, 2008


Distribution Fitting Online Demo

Thursday, April 3rd, 2008

Click here to watch the quick Flash demo showing how to fit probability distributions using EasyFit and apply the best fitting distribution to perform specific calculations – for instance, make estimates using the quantile function, and calculate probabilities.

The data set used in this demo consists of maximum daily wind gust speeds recorded at Station TPLM2 located in the Atlantic Ocean during 2005-2007. This station is owned and maintained by the National Data Buoy Center, and measures wind speed, air temperature, sea temperature, and other data used for weather forecasting.

NOAA defines a wind gust as “a sudden, brief increase in speed of the wind” which usually lasts for less than 20 seconds. The relatively rare but very high wind gusts cause the most damage, that is why they are of more interest than the average daily wind speeds. In essence, the wind gusts are extreme events – no wonder the Generalized Extreme Value distribution perfectly fits the data:

Generalized Extreme Value Distribution

(the x axis units are m/s)

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