¶ Switching between space and time: Spatio-temporal analysis with cubble ¶

Storage of spatial and temporal data is often split into different tables

A long table?

Inefficient memory use,

repeated information,

especially when large geometry objects are combined with frequent temporal data (daily or weekly).

Still use all my data analysis toolkits built from tibble (data frame)

Cubble: a spatio-temporal vector data structure

Cubble is a nested object built on tibble that allow easy pivoting between spatial and temporal form.

Pipeline with cubble

spatial <- stations %>% 
  {{ Your spatial analysis }} 

##############################
# more subsetting step if temporal analysis
# depends on spatial results
sp_id <- spatial %>% pull(id)
ts_subset <- ts %>% filter(id %in% sp_id)
##############################

temporal <- ts_subset %>% 
  {{ Your temporal analysis }} 

##############################
# more subsetting step if spatial analysis 
# depends on temporal results
ts_id <- temporal %>% pull(id)
sp_subset <- spatial %>% filter(id %in% ts_id)
##############################

sp_subset %>% 
  {{ Your spatial analysis }}

cb_obj %>% 
  {{ Your spatial analysis }} %>% 
  face_temporal() %>% 
  {{ Your temporal analysis }} %>% 
  face_spatial() %>% 
  {{ Your spatial analysis }}

Here is a syntax comparison with and without cubble
On the right hand side with cubble, you can do some spatial analysis in the nested form, pivot it to the long form for some temporal analysis, and then pivot it back to the nested form for some additional spatial analysis.
Sometimes, the spatial analysis include extracting some interesting sites.
I have highlighted the code you will need to do to pull out some interesting stations and then filter out those station in the temporal data
In cubble, these updates are automatically handled by face_temporal() and face_spatial(), so you don’t need to manually updates your spatial or temporal data to match with the other.
Also the cubble pipeline chains all the operations together and there is no intermediate objects created in the workflow.

Australian weather station data:

stations

# A tibble: 30 × 6
  id            lat  long  elev name                       wmo_id
  <chr>       <dbl> <dbl> <dbl> <chr>                       <dbl>
1 ASN00060139 -31.4  153.   4.2 port macquarie airport aws  94786
2 ASN00068228 -34.4  151.  10   bellambi aws                94749
3 ASN00017123 -28.1  140.  37.8 moomba airport              95481
4 ASN00081049 -36.4  145. 114   tatura inst sustainable ag  95836
5 ASN00018201 -32.5  138.  14   port augusta aero           95666
# … with 25 more rows

ts

# A tibble: 10,632 × 5
  id          date        prcp  tmax  tmin
  <chr>       <date>     <dbl> <dbl> <dbl>
1 ASN00003057 2020-01-01     0  36.7  26.9
2 ASN00003057 2020-01-02    41  34.2  24  
3 ASN00003057 2020-01-03     0  35    25.4
4 ASN00003057 2020-01-04    40  29.1  25.4
5 ASN00003057 2020-01-05  1640  27.3  24.3
# … with 10,627 more rows

Cast your data into a cubble

(weather <- as_cubble(
  list(spatial = stations, temporal = ts),
  key = id, index = date, coords = c(long, lat)
))(weather <- as_cubble(
  list(spatial = stations, temporal = ts),
  key = id, index = date, coords = c(long, lat)
))

# cubble:   id [30]: nested form
# bbox:     [114.09, -41.88, 152.87, -11.65]
# temporal: date [date], prcp [dbl], tmax [dbl], tmin [dbl]
  id            lat  long  elev name              wmo_id ts                
  <chr>       <dbl> <dbl> <dbl> <chr>              <dbl> <list>            
1 ASN00003057 -16.5  123.     7 cygnet bay         94201 <tibble [316 × 4]>
2 ASN00005007 -22.2  114.     5 learmonth airport  94302 <tibble [363 × 4]>
3 ASN00005084 -21.5  115.     5 thevenard island   94303 <tibble [366 × 4]>
4 ASN00010515 -32.1  117.   199 beverley           95615 <tibble [354 × 4]>
5 ASN00012314 -27.8  121.   497 leinster aero      95448 <tibble [366 × 4]>
# … with 25 more rows

the spatial data (stations) can be an sf object and temporal data (ts) can be a tsibble object.

Switch between the two forms

long form

(weather_long <- weather %>% 
  face_temporal())

# cubble:  date, id [30]: long form
# bbox:    [114.09, -41.88, 152.87, -11.65]
# spatial: lat [dbl], long [dbl], elev [dbl],
#   name [chr], wmo_id [dbl]
  id          date        prcp  tmax  tmin
  <chr>       <date>     <dbl> <dbl> <dbl>
1 ASN00003057 2020-01-01     0  36.7  26.9
2 ASN00003057 2020-01-02    41  34.2  24  
3 ASN00003057 2020-01-03     0  35    25.4
4 ASN00003057 2020-01-04    40  29.1  25.4
5 ASN00003057 2020-01-05  1640  27.3  24.3
# … with 10,627 more rows

back to the nested form:

(weather_back <- weather_long %>% 
   face_spatial())

# cubble:   id [30]: nested form
# bbox:     [114.09, -41.88, 152.87, -11.65]
# temporal: date [date], prcp [dbl], tmax [dbl],
#   tmin [dbl]
  id         lat  long  elev name  wmo_id ts      
  <chr>    <dbl> <dbl> <dbl> <chr>  <dbl> <list>  
1 ASN0000… -16.5  123.     7 cygn…  94201 <tibble>
2 ASN0000… -22.2  114.     5 lear…  94302 <tibble>
3 ASN0000… -21.5  115.     5 thev…  94303 <tibble>
4 ASN0001… -32.1  117.   199 beve…  95615 <tibble>
5 ASN0001… -27.8  121.   497 lein…  95448 <tibble>
# … with 25 more rows

identical(weather_back, weather)

[1] TRUE

Access variables in the other form

Reference temporal variables with $

weather %>% 
  mutate(avg_tmax = mean(ts$tmax, na.rm = TRUE))

# cubble:   id [30]: nested form
# bbox:     [114.09, -41.88, 152.87, -11.65]
# temporal: date [date], prcp [dbl], tmax [dbl], tmin [dbl]
  id            lat  long  elev name              wmo_id ts                 avg_tmax
  <chr>       <dbl> <dbl> <dbl> <chr>              <dbl> <list>                <dbl>
1 ASN00003057 -16.5  123.     7 cygnet bay         94201 <tibble [316 × 4]>     32.4
2 ASN00005007 -22.2  114.     5 learmonth airport  94302 <tibble [363 × 4]>     33.2
3 ASN00005084 -21.5  115.     5 thevenard island   94303 <tibble [366 × 4]>     30.7
4 ASN00010515 -32.1  117.   199 beverley           95615 <tibble [354 × 4]>     26.4
5 ASN00012314 -27.8  121.   497 leinster aero      95448 <tibble [366 × 4]>     29.6
# … with 25 more rows

Move spatial variables into the long form

weather_long %>% unfold(long, lat)

# cubble:  date, id [30]: long form
# bbox:    [114.09, -41.88, 152.87, -11.65]
# spatial: lat [dbl], long [dbl], elev [dbl], name [chr], wmo_id [dbl]
  id          date        prcp  tmax  tmin  long   lat
  <chr>       <date>     <dbl> <dbl> <dbl> <dbl> <dbl>
1 ASN00003057 2020-01-01     0  36.7  26.9  123. -16.5
2 ASN00003057 2020-01-02    41  34.2  24    123. -16.5
3 ASN00003057 2020-01-03     0  35    25.4  123. -16.5
4 ASN00003057 2020-01-04    40  29.1  25.4  123. -16.5
5 ASN00003057 2020-01-05  1640  27.3  24.3  123. -16.5
# … with 10,627 more rows

Explore temporal pattern across space

Glyph map transformation

DATA %>%
  ggplot() +
  geom_glyph(
    aes(x_major = X_MAJOR, x_minor = X_MINOR,
        y_major = Y_MAJOR, y_minor = Y_MINOR)) +
  ...

Avg. max. temperature on the map

cb <- as_cubble(
  list(spatial = stations, temporal = ts),
  key = id, index = date, coords = c(long, lat)
)

set.seed(0927)
cb_glyph <- cb %>%
  slice_sample(n = 20) %>%
  face_temporal() %>%
  mutate(month = lubridate::month(date)) %>%
  group_by(month) %>% 
  summarise(tmax = mean(tmax, na.rm = TRUE)) %>%
  unfold(long, lat)

ggplot() +
  geom_sf(data = oz_simp, 
          fill = "grey95", 
          color = "white") +
  geom_glyph(
    data = cb_glyph,
    aes(x_major = long, x_minor = month,
        y_major = lat, y_minor = tmax),
    width = 2, height = 0.7) + 
  ggthemes::theme_map()cb <- as_cubble(
  list(spatial = stations, temporal = ts),
  key = id, index = date, coords = c(long, lat)
)

set.seed(0927)
cb_glyph <- cb %>%
  slice_sample(n = 20) %>%
  face_temporal() %>%
  mutate(month = lubridate::month(date)) %>%
  group_by(month) %>% 
  summarise(tmax = mean(tmax, na.rm = TRUE)) %>%
  unfold(long, lat)

ggplot() +
  geom_sf(data = oz_simp, 
          fill = "grey95", 
          color = "white") +
  geom_glyph(
    data = cb_glyph,
    aes(x_major = long, x_minor = month,
        y_major = lat, y_minor = tmax),
    width = 2, height = 0.7) + 
  ggthemes::theme_map()cb <- as_cubble(
  list(spatial = stations, temporal = ts),
  key = id, index = date, coords = c(long, lat)
)

set.seed(0927)
cb_glyph <- cb %>%
  slice_sample(n = 20) %>%
  face_temporal() %>%
  mutate(month = lubridate::month(date)) %>%
  group_by(month) %>% 
  summarise(tmax = mean(tmax, na.rm = TRUE)) %>%
  unfold(long, lat)

ggplot() +
  geom_sf(data = oz_simp, 
          fill = "grey95", 
          color = "white") +
  geom_glyph(
    data = cb_glyph,
    aes(x_major = long, x_minor = month,
        y_major = lat, y_minor = tmax),
    width = 2, height = 0.7) + 
  ggthemes::theme_map()cb <- as_cubble(
  list(spatial = stations, temporal = ts),
  key = id, index = date, coords = c(long, lat)
)

set.seed(0927)
cb_glyph <- cb %>%
  slice_sample(n = 20) %>%
  face_temporal() %>%
  mutate(month = lubridate::month(date)) %>%
  group_by(month) %>% 
  summarise(tmax = mean(tmax, na.rm = TRUE)) %>%
  unfold(long, lat)

ggplot() +
  geom_sf(data = oz_simp, 
          fill = "grey95", 
          color = "white") +
  geom_glyph(
    data = cb_glyph,
    aes(x_major = long, x_minor = month,
        y_major = lat, y_minor = tmax),
    width = 2, height = 0.7) + 
  ggthemes::theme_map()cb <- as_cubble(
  list(spatial = stations, temporal = ts),
  key = id, index = date, coords = c(long, lat)
)

set.seed(0927)
cb_glyph <- cb %>%
  slice_sample(n = 20) %>%
  face_temporal() %>%
  mutate(month = lubridate::month(date)) %>%
  group_by(month) %>% 
  summarise(tmax = mean(tmax, na.rm = TRUE)) %>%
  unfold(long, lat)

ggplot() +
  geom_sf(data = oz_simp, 
          fill = "grey95", 
          color = "white") +
  geom_glyph(
    data = cb_glyph,
    aes(x_major = long, x_minor = month,
        y_major = lat, y_minor = tmax),
    width = 2, height = 0.7) + 
  ggthemes::theme_map()cb <- as_cubble(
  list(spatial = stations, temporal = ts),
  key = id, index = date, coords = c(long, lat)
)

set.seed(0927)
cb_glyph <- cb %>%
  slice_sample(n = 20) %>%
  face_temporal() %>%
  mutate(month = lubridate::month(date)) %>%
  group_by(month) %>% 
  summarise(tmax = mean(tmax, na.rm = TRUE)) %>%
  unfold(long, lat)

ggplot() +
  geom_sf(data = oz_simp, 
          fill = "grey95", 
          color = "white") +
  geom_glyph(
    data = cb_glyph,
    aes(x_major = long, x_minor = month,
        y_major = lat, y_minor = tmax),
    width = 2, height = 0.7) + 
  ggthemes::theme_map()

This is a full example of using glyph map to explore Australian weather pattern.
The code has three blocks.
In the first block we first create a cubble object form the stations and ts data.
The second block involves wrangling the data using the nested and long form.
Sampling 20 stations is a spatial operations, so it is performed in the nested form.
Then we need to do a summary of average maximum tmeperature by month. It is a temporal operation, so the cubble is then switched to the long form with face_temporal().
The glyph map requires both the spatial and temporal axes variables as aesthetics, so we move the column long and lat with unfold() into the long form.
The last chunk shows the ggplot2 code to make the glyph map with geom_glyph()

[breath]

On the map, you can see that the temperature curve in the north and south (the Tasmania Island) are relative constant throughout the year.
Those inland stations, for example in the eastern Australia, have a much visible variation in the year, as compared to the coastline ones.
And remember Australia is in the southern hemisphere, so winter is in the June, July, and August and the temperature is in the U-shape.

Acknowledgements

The slides are made with Quarto
All the materials used to prepare the slides are available at sherryzhang-ecssmini2022.netlify.app

Reference

cubble: https://huizezhang-sherry.github.io/cubble/
Wickham, H., Hofmann, H., Wickham, C., & Cook, D. (2012). Glyph‐maps for visually exploring temporal patterns in climate data and models. Environmetrics, 23(5), 382-393: https://vita.had.co.nz/papers/glyph-maps.pdf