Temporal aggregation in chain graph models

The dependence structure of an observed process induced by temporal aggregation of a time evolving hidden spatial phenomenon is addressed. Data are described by means of chain graph models and an algorithm to compute the chain graph resulting from the temporal aggregation of a directed acyclic graph is provided. This chain graph is the best graph which covers the independencies of the resulting process within the chain graph class. A sufficient condition that produces a memory loss of the observed process with respect to its hidden origin is analyzed. Some examples are used for illustrating algorithms and results.