1. A method comprising the steps of: storing event data representative of an event, the event data comprising spatiotemporally ambiguous measurements; storing side information, the side information comprising at least one of spatial data and temporal data related to the event in space-time; associating the event data with the side information by soft association to form association data: applying one or more estimation techniques to the association data to form estimation data; and determining at least one of a rate, a factor, a likelihood, a value, a time, a location, and a cause for the event by applying one or more characterization techniques to the estimation data.