Analysis and prediction of Caspian Sea level pattern anomalies observed by satellite altimetry using autoregressive integrated moving average models

In this study, we successfully present the analysis and forecasting of Caspian Sea level pattern anomalies based on about 15 years of Topex/Poseidon and Jason-1 altimetry data covering 1993–2008, which are originally developed and optimized for open oceans but have the considerable capability to monitor inland water level changes. Since these altimetric measurements comprise of a large datasets and then are complicated to be used for our purposes, principal component analysis is adopted to reduce the complexity of large time series data analysis. Furthermore, autoregressive integrated moving average (ARIMA) model is applied for further analyzing and forecasting the time series. The ARIMA model is herein applied to the 1993–2006 time series of first principal component scores (sPC1). Subsequently, the remaining data acquired from sPC1 is used for verification of the model prediction results. According to our analysis, ARIMA (1,1,0)(0,1,1) model has been found as optimal representative model capable of predicting pattern of Caspian Sea level anomalies reasonably. The analysis of the time series derived by sPC1 reveals the evolution of Caspian Sea level pattern can be subdivided into five different phases with dissimilar rates of rise and fall for a 15-year time span.