Characterizing and Forecasting Climate Indices Using Time Series Models

Abstract The objective of the current study is to present a comparison of techniques for the forecasting of low frequency climate oscillation indices with a focus on the Great Lakes system. A number of time series models have been tested including the traditional Autoregressive Moving Average (ARMA) model, Dynamic Linear model (DLM), Generalized Autoregressive Conditional Heteroskedasticity (GARCH) model, as well as the nonstationary oscillation resampling (NSOR) technique. These models were used to forecast the monthly El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) and Pacific Decadal Oscillation (PDO) indices which show the most significant teleconnection with the net basin supply (NBS) of the Great Lakes system from a preliminary study. The overall objective is to predict future water levels, ice extent, and temperature, for planning and decision making purposes. The results showed that the DLM and GARCH models are superior for forecasting the monthly ENSO index, while the forecasted values from the traditional ARMA model presented a good agreement with the observed values within a short lead time ahead for the monthly PDO index.