Scientific Research in Geography: Practical 8. Jan Feb. 2005 Alpine glaciers and their future.

Supervisor: Ian Evans WEEK 3 Circular statistics. Note that you can copy and paste from this file rather than retyping commands. copy data file to your space on j: open Stata (see NJC term 1 handouts) Further information on these methods can be found on DUO in the file; CircularstatStataNJC.doc Or type whelp circular The most useful routines for this project (you might want to try others too) are circsummarize (circsu) circlccorr circvplot circdplot and fourier. cd j: log using my31jan.log u alps05lean circsu aspect ablationAspect,det These variables are very similar; there is slightly more scatter (lower strength) for ablationAspect as it is influenced by pre-existing valleys. or for Southern & Maritime Alps: circsu aspect ablationAspect if district==1,det Note consistency (northward); but wider confidence interval for smaller data sets. The net northward tendency in glacier aspect is moderate for the Alps as a whole, but stronger for the southern district. The distribution of glacier numbers over aspect is significantly non-uniform by both tests (Rayleigh and Kuiper: the latter considers any deviation from uniformity, while Rayleigh's test considers unimodal deviation). circsu aspect ,det by(cl1) Note that (ice)field and outlet (glacier) are not sufficiently numerous to provide significant results. circsu aspect ,det by(major) The differences between major divisions are subtle; the 95% confidence intervals on vector means overlap. Often we need to relate a linear variable to a circular one: DO NOT use corr, which is for linear variables only. Note that in the command circlccorr, the linear variable precedes the circular: circlccorr midalt aspect The relation is highly significant but not strong. Useful graphs (dot and vector plots) are provided by: circdplt aspect circdplt aspect, uti(Alps; all glaciers) circvplt aspect, uti(Alps; all glaciers) These are the old commands: the new command circvplot also works, but you need to manipulate the shape (xsize, ysize), remembering that the data resolution is 45 and this is the change in angle between adjacent classes. It uses the option ti rather than uti:

circvplot aspect, ti(Alps; all glaciers) xsize(4) ysize(7) To remind ourselves of district numbers: tab district tab district , nolabel circvplot aspect if district==18, ti(Adamello glaciers) circvplot aspect if district==14, ti(Glarus glaciers) You might check that the number of glaciers is correct circsu aspect if district==14 Or to remind ourselves of district numbers: tab type tab type, nolabel circvplot aspect if type==0, ti(normal glaciers in the Alps) Regressions have to be on cosines and sines (because of the 0=360 situation): these are provided by fourier, e.g.: fourier ablationAspect the Alps file already contains cosine and sine for (accumulation area) aspect, so: reg length cosaspect sinaspect The regression is just significant at the 0.05 level, because of the relation to sine(aspect): t is higher and p lower for sine than for cosine. But the relation is very weak (R2 is negligible). reg midalt cosaspect sinaspect For mid-altitude, however, both terms are highly significant and account for 10% of variation. The northsouth contrast (expressed in the cosine coefficient) is considerably stronger than the east-west (sine). Note that further variables can be considered simultaneously, in a multiple regression equation predicting midalt: reg midalt cosaspect sinaspect logarea logheightdi Both of these variables improve the prediction significantly. If you are happy to go on increasing model complexity, you can combine qualitative variables such as type or district with these quantitative controls, in an analysis of variance, so long as you state which variables are quantitative (continuous):
anova midalt type cosaspect sinaspect logarea logheightdi, cont(cosaspect sinaspect logarea logheightdi)

As logarea is insignificant in that particular combination, we should drop it and re-run:

anova midalt type cosaspect sinaspect logheightdi, cont(cosaspect sinaspect logheightdi)

Again, these commands are useful with the Alps data but these examples just illustrate the ways you can use them. You can take unfamiliar commands, such as anova, further by typing whelp In the final week, week 4, we will be in the GRC computer room to answer your queries and aid your completing the computation for whatever version of the project you have chosen, but no further new methods will be introduced. Turn your .log file into your report, or copy and paste.

Report due to Dept. Office Friday 18th Feb.