Distinguishing Outlier Types in Time Series

Distinguishing an outlier in a time series arising through measurement error from one arising through a perturbation of the underlying system can be of use in data validation. In this paper a method of testing for the presence of an outlier of unknown type is proposed. Then the properties of a rule based on the likelihood ratio which attempts to distinguish the two types of outlier are examined and compared with those of the corresponding Bayes rules. An example involving data from an industrial production process is studied.