You'll encounter these terms when working with space-time cubes in ArcGIS Pro.
| Term | Description |
|---|---|
Conceptualization of spatial relationships | A conceptualization of spatial relationships, in the context of space-time cubes, defines the relationship between bins by spatially and temporally grouping the bins into neighborhoods and assigning a weight to each neighbor bin in a neighborhood. |
A tool that aggregates a point feature class into a netCDF data structure by aggregating the points into space-time cube bins. | |
A tool that structures panel data or station data into a netCDF data format by creating space-time bins. | |
A tool that creates a space-time cube from a multidimensional raster layer by structuring it into a netCDF data format. | |
Defined locations cube | A space-time cube structured by defined locations. It contains features and time steps. You can determine the total number of bins by multiplying the number of features by the number of time steps. You can create a defined locations cube by doing any of the following:
Use the Describe Space Time Cube tool to determine the space-time cube type. |
Display theme | Preset 2D and 3D symbology to visualize the variables, analysis results, and forecast results contained in a space-time cube. One or more display themes exist for each type of analysis, enhancing the results and making it simpler and more intuitive to explore the data. Learn more about visualization display themes for the space-time cube layer |
Forecast cube | A space-time cube that contains space-time bins with forecasted values. A forecast cube may be created by any tool in the Time Series Forecasting or Time Series AI toolset. |
Grid cube (fishnet or hexagon) | A space-time cube where the locations are formed by a regularly shaped grid of rectangular or hexagon features. The grid cube structure has rows, columns, and time steps. You can obtain the total number of bins in a grid cube by multiplying the number of rows by the number of columns by the number of time steps. The rows and columns determine the spatial extent of the cube, and the time steps determine the temporal extent. A grid cube is always rectangular even if the point data is not, so some locations will have 0 point count for all time steps. Locations with no data may not be visualized by display themes or used in analyses. To create a grid cube, use the Create Space Time Cube by Aggregating Points tool. The Create Space Time Cube by Multidimensional Raster Layer tool will also create a grid cube, if the multidimensional raster layer has square cells. |
Location | The position in two-dimensional space (x, y) of a space-time bin. The shape of a location may be a defined point, defined polygon feature, hexagonal grid feature, or fishnet grid feature. Bins that share the same location form a time series. |
Mann-Kendall statistics | A form of trend analysis performed on every location within a space-time cube. The Mann-Kendall statistic is a rank correlation analysis for the bin count or value and their time sequence. It indicates whether the trend in the values at a location is increasing or decreasing over time. |
netCDF | A multidimensional data format that uses the .nc file extension. Space-time cubes use the netCDF format to store data in a specific schema. All space-time cubes are netCDFs. Space-time cubes can be used as input to any tool in the space-time pattern analysis, time series forecasting, and space-time cube visualization toolsets. |
Panel data | Data acquired from a static entity or location over time. In the context of space-time cubes, panel data is synonymous with station data and typically represents fixed locations with attribute values that change over time, such as state population counts. |
Polygon analysis mask | A feature layer that indicates the area of a space-time cube to be analyzed. Typically, a polygon analysis mask represents the area where observations could possibly occur, and excludes areas where observations are impossible or not relevant to the analysis. Polygon analysis mask is an optional parameter for the Emerging Hot Spot Analysis and Local Outlier Analysis tools. |
Space-time bin | A space-time cube is composed of space time bins. A bin represents a single location and a single time step. Each bin has a fixed position in space (x, y) and time. |
Space-time cube | A three-dimensional cube made up of space-time bins. The X and Y dimensions represent space, and Z represents time. Space-time cubes are netCDF files and have an .nc extension. Each bin in a space-time cube contains one or more values. You can apply an analysis, forecast, or visualize the variables and results in a space-time cube. |
Space-time cube layer | A feature layer that represents netCDF space-time cube data in 3D. The layer allows you to visualize and interact with the variables and analysis results stored in a space-time cube using the space-time cube ribbon. A space-time cube layer can be created from a space-time cube using the Make Space Time Cube Layer tool. |
Space-time cube ribbon | A contextual tab that appears when a space-time cube layer is selected in the Contents pane. The ribbon provides access to functions and tools that can be used to visualize, explore, and manage the variables and analyses stored in a space-time cube layer. |
Spatiotemporal data | Data with both a spatial and a temporal element. |
Station data | Data acquired from a static entity or location over time. In the context of space-time cubes, station data is synonymous with panel data and typically represents fixed locations with attribute values that change over time, such as weather stations collecting temperature measurements. |
Subset cube | A portion of a space-time cube. A space-time cube may be subset by space, time, or both space and time using the Subset Space Time Cube tool. |
Template cube | A space-time cube that is used as a template to create a new space-time cube. The new space-time cube will have the same spatial extent, bin size, reference time, and time step alignment as the original cube. |
Temporal bias | A time slice at the beginning or end of a space-time cube that does not contain data across the entire time span. This can bias your results because it will appear that the temporally biased time step has significantly fewer points than other time steps, which is an artificial result of the aggregation scheme. Whether temporal bias occurs in the first or last time-step depends on the time step alignment that is selected when the space-time cube is created. Temporal bias can occur when the space-time cube is created using the Create Space Time Cube by Aggregating Points tool or Create Space Time Cube by Multidimensional Raster Layer tool, if temporal aggregation is used. |
Time series (or bin time series) | Bins in a space-time cube that share the same location and form a time series. |
Time slice | Bins in a space-time cube that share the same time step interval. Each time slice contains one bin for each location in the space-time cube. Bins in a time slice share the same time step ID. |
Time step interval | The amount of time that each bin represents. The time step interval is a fixed duration and each space-time bin represents the same amount of time. For example, the time step interval can be 3 minutes, 5 days, or 1 year. |