Jiajie Kong

This article reviews and compares popular methods, some old and some recent, that produce time series having Poisson marginal distributions. The article begins by narrating ways where time series with Poisson marginal distributions can be produced. Modeling nonstationary series with covariates motivates consideration of methods where the Poisson parameter depends on time. Here, estimation methods are developed for some of the more flexible methods. The results are used in the analysis of (1) a count sequence of tropical cyclones occurring in the North Atlantic Basin since 1970, and (2) the number of no‐hitter games pitched in Major League Baseball since 1893. Tests for whether the Poisson marginal distribution is appropriate are included.

Count time series are widely encountered in practice. As with continuous valued data, many count series have seasonal properties. This article uses a recent advance in stationary count time series to develop a general seasonal count time series modeling paradigm. The model constructed here permits any marginal distribution for the series and the most flexible autocorrelations possible, including those with negative dependence. Likelihood methods of inference are explored. The article first develops the modeling methods, which entail a discrete transformation of a Gaussian process having seasonal dynamics. Properties of this model class are then established and particle filtering likelihood methods of parameter estimation are developed. A simulation study demonstrating the efficacy of the methods is presented and an application to the number of rainy days in successive weeks in Seattle, Washington is given.