Timereferenced

Timereferenced is an adjective used to describe data, statements, or processes that include an explicit reference to time, such as a timestamp, time interval, or temporal qualifier. Timereferenced information carries a temporal context that enables chronological ordering, historical analysis, and reproducibility of results.

In information systems, timereferenced data supports time-aware queries, auditing, and historical reconstruction. It is central to temporal databases, where data carries validity intervals or timestamps. Timereferenced data often uses timestamps, time zones, and standardized formats to tag records, events, or measurements with their occurrence or applicability.

Two related notions are valid time and transaction time: valid time denotes when facts were true in the real world, while transaction time indicates when facts were stored or observed by the system. Some models combine both, resulting in bitemporal data.

Benefits include improved traceability, accountability, and analytical capabilities, especially for trend analysis and compliance. Challenges include clock synchronization across systems, time zone handling, daylight saving adjustments, and storage overhead.

Examples include log entries with timestamps, sensor streams with sampling times, and version histories where each edit has a time reference.

See also temporal databases, timestamps, time series, audit trail, and versioning.