Overlaying time series data

I am trying to overlay the years of data on top of one another rather than have them in order so I can compare them in better detail. Anyone have any idea?

Here are my 4 scripts I have used to plot this:

To process the data:

function data=processfile(filename)

% function to load data from COPEPOD
% input is the filename of the data file
% output is the Year/Month and Adundance from the data file
% tmp=tempory l=line

data.filename=filename; %each time i look at output data with contain name of data file it loaded data from 

fid=fopen(filename); %opens up data file

%Skips headerlines
for I=1:18 %loop to repeat until the desired line is reached e.g. 18 is when the text that i am interested in starts 
    tmpl=fgetl(fid); %fgetl=function get line %fid=file identifier %tmpl=asssigned name of variable to capture each line 
end

%disp(tmpl);

J=1;
while ischar(tmpl)
%     21 strings
    tmp=textscan(tmpl,'%s',32,'Delimiter',','); %takes the input of the loop line with format spec= what we are going to break it into e.g. %s = strings
     data.date(J)=datenum( str2num( cell2mat(tmp{1}(2))), str2num( cell2mat(tmp{1}(3))),str2num( cell2mat(tmp{1}(4))))+str2num( cell2mat(tmp{1}(5)))/24; %year, month, day, time /fraction of day adding onto date
    
    data.Plankton=str2num(cell2mat(tmp{1}(22))); %plankton amount %datestr(data1994_april.d) to display date properly
    tmpPlankton=str2num(cell2mat(tmp{1}(22)));
    if isempty(tmpPlankton)
        tmpPlankton=NaN;
    end
    data.Plankton(J)=tmpPlankton;
    
    tmpl=fgetl(fid);
    J=J+1;
end

    
%data.datetime(J)=datenum( cell2mat(tmp{1}) );
% 
%     data.CO2(J)=tmp{2};
% 

%     
% end
% 
fclose(fid); %closes file


%calculate mean and std
data.date=mean(data.date);
data.stdPlankton=std(data.Plankton)
data.Plankton=mean(data.Plankton);
 

To load the data:

function output = loadalldata (foldername)
%d=dir('*.csv');
d = dir ([foldername filesep '*.csv']);

data.date=[];
data.Plankton=[];
data.stdPlankton=[];

for I=1:length(d)
    tmp=processfile([foldername filesep d(I).name]);
    
    data.date=[data.date tmp.date];
    data.Plankton=[data.Plankton tmp.Plankton];
    data.stdPlankton=[data.stdPlankton tmp.stdPlankton];
end

output.data.date=data.date;
output.data.Plankton=data.Plankton;
output.data.stdPlankton=data.stdPlankton;

To plot the data:

cm = colormap(lines(12));

figure (1)
%subplot (3,1,1)
%clears figure after use so they don't overlay
plot(data1995.data.date,data1995.data.Plankton,'-','Color',cm(1,:))
hold on 
plot(data1996.data.date,data1996.data.Plankton,'-','Color',cm(2,:))
plot(data1997.data.date,data1997.data.Plankton,'-','Color',cm(3,:))
plot(data1998.data.date,data1998.data.Plankton,'-','Color',cm(4,:))
plot(data1999.data.date,data1999.data.Plankton,'-','Color',cm(5,:))
plot(data2000.data.date,data2000.data.Plankton,'-','Color',cm(6,:))
plot(data2001.data.date,data2001.data.Plankton,'-','Color',cm(7,:))
plot(data2002.data.date,data2002.data.Plankton,'-','Color',cm(8,:))
plot(data2003.data.date,data2003.data.Plankton,'-','Color',cm(9,:))
plot(data2004.data.date,data2004.data.Plankton,'-','Color',cm(10,:))
plot(data2005.data.date,data2005.data.Plankton,'-','Color',cm(11,:))
plot(data2006.data.date,data2006.data.Plankton,'-','Color',cm(12,:))


errorbar(data.date,data.Plankton,data.stdPlankton,'.b-','MarkerEdgeColor','r','MarkerSize',17,'LineWidth', 1.5)
xlabel('Day Of Year')
ylabel ('SST (^oC)')
%title ('SST at L4 2009-2016', 'fontsize', 16)
legend ('1995','1996','1997','1998','1999','2000','2001','2002', '2003', '2004', '2005', '2006')

Thanks you.

Answer 1

[Star Strider]

You are creating an ensemble. This is frequently done in order to take the mean (ensemble average) of data at particular time points over a number of records. See: cutting up the signal into repeating parts for one example.

A more recent example: Average of Wave from 10 waves in single graph.