New concepts on quantifying event data

A wide range of geoprocesses manifest as observable events in a variety of contexts, including shifts in palaeoclimate regimes, evolutionary milestones, tectonic activities, and more. Many prominent research questions, such as synchronisation analysis or power spectrum estimation of discrete data, pose considerable challenges to linear tools. We present recent advances using a specific similarity measure for discrete data and the method of recurrence plots for different applications in the field of highly discrete event data. We illustrate their potential for palaeoclimate studies, particularly in detecting synchronisation between signals of discrete extreme events and continuous signals, estimating power spectra of spiky signals, and analysing data with irregular sampling.