Environmental Data Analysis with MatLab, 2nd Edition

2

A first look at data

Abstract

Chapter 2, A First Look at Data, leads students through the steps that, in our view, should be taken when first confronted with a new dataset. Time plots, scatter plots, and histograms, as well as simple calculations, are used to examine the data with the aim of both understanding their general character and spotting problems. We take the position that all datasets have problems—errors, data gaps, inconvenient units of measurement, and so forth. Such problems should not scare a person away from data analysis! The chapter champions the use of the reality check—checking that observations of a particular parameter really have the properties that we know it must possess. Several case study datasets are introduced, ...