Twocircle

Twocircle is a software package designed for analyzing and visualizing circular data. Circular data, also known as directional data, arises when observations are angles or directions, such as wind direction, animal headings, or times of day. Traditional statistical methods are often inappropriate for such data because the endpoints of the circular scale (e.g., 0 and 360 degrees) are adjacent. Twocircle provides a suite of tools to address these challenges.

The package offers functions for descriptive statistics of circular data, including calculating mean, median, variance, and concentration parameters. It also supports hypothesis testing, allowing users to test for uniformity or compare distributions of circular data. Visualization is a key feature, with functions for creating rose diagrams, circular histograms, and other specialized plots to represent directional data effectively.

Twocircle can be used for various applications in fields like meteorology, biology, and astronomy. For instance, researchers might use it to analyze the migration patterns of birds, the orientation of plant growth in response to light, or the timing of astronomical events. The software aims to make the analysis of circular data accessible to researchers and practitioners without requiring extensive statistical expertise in this specialized area. It is typically implemented as a library within a programming environment.