Estimation of periodicities in hydrologic data

Periodicites in hydrologic data are frequently estimated and studied. In some cases the periodic components are subtracted from the data to obtain the stochastic components. In other cases the physical reasons for the occurrence of these periodicities are investigated. Apart from the annual cycle in the hydrologic data, periods corresponding to the 11 year sunspot cycle, the Hale cycle and others have been detected.The conclusions from most of these studies depend on the reliability and robustness of the methods used to detect these periodicities. Several spectral analysis methods have been proposed to investigate periodicities in time series data. Several of these have been compared to each other. The methods by Siddiqui and Wang and by Damsleth and Spjotvoll, which are stepwise procedures of spectrum estimation, have not been evaluated.Two of the methods of spectral analysis proposed by Siddiqui and Wang and by Damsleth and Spjotvoll are investigated in this study by using generated and observed data. Siddiqui and Wang's method is found to be superior to the Damsleth and Spjotvoll's method.