Time-varying-response smoothing

• DOI: 10.1016/j.dendro.2007.01.004
• Publication Date: 2007-03-27T11:17:49Z
• Authors: Thomas M. Melvin; Keith R. Briffa; Kurt Nicolussi; Michael Grabner
• Keywords: Smoothing; Spline (mechanical); Dendroclimatology; Box spline

Abstract Cubic smoothing splines with a fixed-period response are used widely in producing “expected” growth curves for ring-width and density data in dendroclimatology. A simple modification to the procedure which generates these splines enables the use of a smoothing spline with a user-specified, time-varying flexibility and hence time-varying-response characteristics. The revised procedure is presented here, along with different examples of its application in the context of Regional Curve Standardisation (RCS). The ability to generate a smoothing spline with time-dependent flexibility may have wider application in tree-ring studies.