The AstroStat Slog

Is there an objective method to combine measurements of the same quantity obtained with different instruments?

Suppose you have a set of N₁ measurements obtained with one detector, and another set of N₂ measurements obtained with a second detector. And let’s say you wanted something as simple as an estimate of the mean of the quantity (say the intensity) being measured. Let us further stipulate that the measurement errors of each of the points is similar in magnitude and neither instrument displays any odd behavior. How does one combine the two datasets without appealing to subjective biases about the reliability or otherwise of the two instruments? Continue reading ‘[Q] Objectivity and Frequentist Statistics’ »

Diab Jerius follows up on LOESS techniquesб with a very nice summary update and finds LOCFIT to be very useful, but there are still questions about how it deals with measurement errors and combining observations from different experiments:

Continue reading ‘loess and lowess and locfit, oh my’ »