Dear all, I am stuck with a problem that might be trivial for most of you (and therefore is a bit embarrassing for me...): I want to calculate a generalized least squares regression using two time series (Y depending on X) with an autoregressive correlation structure of order two (the data along time are given below). I use 'gls' from package 'nlme': Calib.gls <- gls(Y~X, data=my.data, correlation=corARMA(form=~Time,p=2,q=0), method="ML") For reasons I do not understand, gls results in parameter estimate(s): Phi1 Phi2 1.3066817 -0.3898277 Phi1 is larger than one... but how is this possible? When I run the same regression with those parameters Calib.gls <- gls(Y~X, data=my.data, correlation=corARMA(value=c(1.3066817,-0.3898277),form=~Time,p=2,q=0,fixed=T), method="ML") I get the following error (as expected): Error in corARMA(value = c(1.3066817, -0.3898277), form = ~Time, p = 2, : Parameters in ARMA structure must be < 1 in absolute value I did quite an extensive search on this strange result. The only thing I found was an e-mail by Spencer Graves who suggested to shrink the autoregressive parameters: http://tolstoy.newcastle.edu.au/R/help/05/12/17416.html But this sounds a bit like brute force to me. What's wrong with the parameter estimation? Any help would be highly appreciated! Cheers, Christian Time X Y 1 1873 -2.8950 156.4850 2 1874 -2.8675 156.2996 3 1875 -2.5850 156.1142 4 1876 -2.7500 155.4740 5 1877 -2.9525 154.8338 6 1878 -2.8425 156.0594 7 1879 -2.6100 157.2850 8 1880 -2.5550 157.2242 9 1881 -2.5450 157.1633 10 1882 -2.2375 158.1989 11 1883 -2.1825 159.2167 12 1884 -2.3575 160.2346 13 1885 -2.6950 160.9188 14 1886 -3.0025 162.6746 15 1887 -3.2450 161.0567 16 1888 -3.2300 159.4388 17 1889 -3.5525 158.9550 18 1890 -3.3375 157.3102 19 1891 -3.0575 156.8785 20 1892 -2.9150 154.2640 21 1893 -3.1250 152.9235 22 1894 -2.6475 152.4969 23 1895 -2.6225 151.1264 24 1896 -2.4800 150.9058 25 1897 -2.2825 151.7713 26 1898 -1.9725 152.5223 27 1899 -2.2050 151.2126 28 1900 -2.2225 153.0090 29 1901 -2.3850 152.0028 30 1902 -2.5500 153.5013 31 1903 -2.7250 154.7467 32 1904 -2.8350 156.6052 33 1905 -2.8925 157.2547 34 1906 -2.7625 158.1382 35 1907 -2.8950 159.0217 36 1908 -2.7850 159.9052 37 1909 -2.5875 157.1498 38 1910 -2.4025 156.6411 39 1911 -2.4825 156.1325 40 1912 -2.2050 155.6238 41 1913 -2.2700 158.2547 42 1914 -2.1475 159.1337 43 1915 -2.5125 159.1251 44 1916 -2.6450 161.1250 45 1917 -2.9700 158.5752 46 1918 -2.9100 156.0254 47 1919 -2.8500 153.4756 48 1920 -2.5525 154.3430 49 1921 -2.4425 155.4953 50 1922 -2.2900 156.6475 51 1923 -2.3200 157.7997 52 1924 -2.4075 160.5885 53 1925 -2.3300 160.3871 54 1926 -2.2275 161.6844 55 1927 -2.4725 160.1275 56 1928 -2.4050 156.8495 57 1929 -2.4550 155.8737 58 1930 -2.7650 156.7204 59 1931 -2.8375 156.9264 60 1932 -2.6025 156.8622 61 1933 -2.7850 158.0349 62 1934 -2.6425 160.3390 63 1935 -2.4750 162.1231 64 1936 -2.5775 162.2523 65 1937 -2.5225 162.3814 66 1938 -2.4900 156.1106 67 1939 -2.8625 154.4128 68 1940 -2.9775 154.4742 69 1941 -2.6400 154.5357 70 1942 -2.6925 153.9134 71 1943 -2.6250 154.1395 72 1944 -2.2500 155.8623 73 1945 -2.1150 154.9227 74 1946 -1.9875 152.7174 75 1947 -1.7175 154.1170 76 1948 -1.5450 154.3610 77 1949 -1.7300 154.3788 78 1950 -1.6025 157.3742 79 1951 -2.0350 158.5156 80 1952 -2.1750 159.6570 81 1953 -2.2150 159.6214 82 1954 -2.2800 159.5859 83 1955 -2.3825 159.3992 84 1956 -2.2525 159.2124 85 1957 -2.1775 159.0257 86 1958 -2.1800 158.8390 87 1959 -1.9800 157.9863 88 1960 -2.0825 157.1336 89 1961 -2.4000 156.2810 90 1962 -2.4250 155.4283 91 1963 -2.5900 154.8056 92 1964 -2.5500 154.1829 93 1965 -2.4700 153.8111 94 1966 -2.0950 153.9308 95 1967 -2.2675 153.3540 96 1968 -2.3675 153.7303 97 1969 -2.4875 155.9720 98 1970 -2.3150 157.2869 99 1971 -2.4525 159.7154 100 1972 -2.2550 159.0574 101 1973 -2.1025 158.7933 102 1974 -2.0250 157.7304 103 1975 -2.2000 156.6423 104 1976 -2.1225 154.8109 105 1977 -2.3350 153.9554 106 1978 -2.3650 153.5561 107 1979 -2.4400 153.9316 108 1980 -2.4825 154.3071 109 1981 -2.4150 156.0099 110 1982 -2.4750 156.2076 111 1983 -2.3875 155.6581 112 1984 -2.4025 155.1085 113 1985 -2.3425 155.2312 114 1986 -2.1300 152.8298 115 1987 -1.6550 151.7012 116 1988 -1.3775 150.5727 117 1989 -1.4125 148.7033 118 1990 -1.3150 147.1400 119 1991 -1.3600 147.5766 120 1992 -1.5225 148.0133 121 1993 -1.5050 149.6488 122 1994 -1.2525 151.8252 123 1995 -1.1700 151.1291 124 1996 -1.1675 150.4994 125 1997 -1.2700 149.4424 126 1998 -1.4000 148.3853 127 1999 -1.3325 148.3436 128 2000 -1.1625 148.3019 129 2001 -1.2175 146.5756 130 2002 -1.1950 144.8493 -- ----------------------------------------------- Oeschger Centre for Climate Change Research, Institute of Geography& Institute of Plant Sciences University of Bern http://www.stomatocysts.unibe.ch/kamenik mailto: christian.kamenik at giub.unibe.ch Postal address: Dr. Christian Kamenik Institute of Geography Erlachstrasse 9a, Trakt 3 3012 Bern, Switzerland Tel. +41 (0)31 631 5091 Fax +41 (0)31 631 43 38