IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/stapro/v129y2017icp182-188.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Numerical instability of calculating inverse of spatial covariance matrices

Author

Listed:
  • Lim, Chae Young
  • Chen, Chien-Hung
  • Wu, Wei-Ying

Abstract

Computing an inverse of a covariance matrix is a common computational component in Statistics. For example, Gaussian likelihood function includes the inverse of a covariance matrix. For the computation of the inverse of a spatial covariance matrix, numerically unstable results can arise when the observation locations are getting denser. In this paper, we investigate when computational instability in calculating the inverse of a spatial covariance matrix makes maximum likelihood estimator unreasonable for a Matérn covariance model. Also, some possible approaches to relax such computational instability are discussed.

Suggested Citation

  • Lim, Chae Young & Chen, Chien-Hung & Wu, Wei-Ying, 2017. "Numerical instability of calculating inverse of spatial covariance matrices," Statistics & Probability Letters, Elsevier, vol. 129(C), pages 182-188.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:stapro:v:129:y:2017:i:c:p:182-188
    DOI: 10.1016/j.spl.2017.05.019
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S016771521730202X
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.spl.2017.05.019?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Kaufman, Cari G. & Schervish, Mark J. & Nychka, Douglas W., 2008. "Covariance Tapering for Likelihood-Based Estimation in Large Spatial Data Sets," Journal of the American Statistical Association, American Statistical Association, vol. 103(484), pages 1545-1555.
    2. Zhang, Hao, 2004. "Inconsistent Estimation and Asymptotically Equal Interpolations in Model-Based Geostatistics," Journal of the American Statistical Association, American Statistical Association, vol. 99, pages 250-261, January.
    3. Andrianakis, Ioannis & Challenor, Peter G., 2012. "The effect of the nugget on Gaussian process emulators of computer models," Computational Statistics & Data Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 56(12), pages 4215-4228.
    4. C. G. Kaufman & B. A. Shaby, 2013. "The role of the range parameter for estimation and prediction in geostatistics," Biometrika, Biometrika Trust, vol. 100(2), pages 473-484.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Girard, Didier A., 2020. "Asymptotic near-efficiency of the “Gibbs-energy (GE) and empirical-variance” estimating functions for fitting Matérn models - II: Accounting for measurement errors via “conditional GE mean”," Statistics & Probability Letters, Elsevier, vol. 162(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Hong, Yiping & Zhou, Zaiying & Yang, Ying, 2020. "Hypothesis testing for the smoothness parameter of Matérn covariance model on a regular grid," Journal of Multivariate Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 177(C).
    2. Wenpin Tang & Lu Zhang & Sudipto Banerjee, 2021. "On identifiability and consistency of the nugget in Gaussian spatial process models," Journal of the Royal Statistical Society Series B, Royal Statistical Society, vol. 83(5), pages 1044-1070, November.
    3. Bevilacqua, Moreno & Caamaño-Carrillo, Christian & Porcu, Emilio, 2022. "Unifying compactly supported and Matérn covariance functions in spatial statistics," Journal of Multivariate Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 189(C).
    4. Girard, Didier A., 2016. "Asymptotic near-efficiency of the “Gibbs-energy and empirical-variance” estimating functions for fitting Matérn models — I: Densely sampled processes," Statistics & Probability Letters, Elsevier, vol. 110(C), pages 191-197.
    5. Sierra Pugh & Matthew J. Heaton & Jeff Svedin & Neil Hansen, 2019. "Spatiotemporal Lagged Models for Variable Rate Irrigation in Agriculture," Journal of Agricultural, Biological and Environmental Statistics, Springer;The International Biometric Society;American Statistical Association, vol. 24(4), pages 634-650, December.
    6. Victor De Oliveira & Zifei Han, 2022. "On Information About Covariance Parameters in Gaussian Matérn Random Fields," Journal of Agricultural, Biological and Environmental Statistics, Springer;The International Biometric Society;American Statistical Association, vol. 27(4), pages 690-712, December.
    7. Bachoc, François & Lagnoux, Agnès & Nguyen, Thi Mong Ngoc, 2017. "Cross-validation estimation of covariance parameters under fixed-domain asymptotics," Journal of Multivariate Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 160(C), pages 42-67.
    8. Giovanna Jona Lasinio & Gianluca Mastrantonio & Alessio Pollice, 2013. "Discussing the “big n problem”," Statistical Methods & Applications, Springer;Società Italiana di Statistica, vol. 22(1), pages 97-112, March.
    9. Arthur P. Guillaumin & Adam M. Sykulski & Sofia C. Olhede & Frederik J. Simons, 2022. "The Debiased Spatial Whittle likelihood," Journal of the Royal Statistical Society Series B, Royal Statistical Society, vol. 84(4), pages 1526-1557, September.
    10. Keshavarz, Hossein & Scott, Clayton & Nguyen, XuanLong, 2016. "On the consistency of inversion-free parameter estimation for Gaussian random fields," Journal of Multivariate Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 150(C), pages 245-266.
    11. Bachoc, François, 2013. "Cross Validation and Maximum Likelihood estimations of hyper-parameters of Gaussian processes with model misspecification," Computational Statistics & Data Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 66(C), pages 55-69.
    12. Zhou, Yuzhen & Xiao, Yimin, 2018. "Joint asymptotics for estimating the fractal indices of bivariate Gaussian processes," Journal of Multivariate Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 165(C), pages 56-72.
    13. Bachoc, François & Bevilacqua, Moreno & Velandia, Daira, 2019. "Composite likelihood estimation for a Gaussian process under fixed domain asymptotics," Journal of Multivariate Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 174(C).
    14. Wu, Wei-Ying & Lim, Chae Young & Xiao, Yimin, 2013. "Tail estimation of the spectral density for a stationary Gaussian random field," Journal of Multivariate Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 116(C), pages 74-91.
    15. Rajala, T. & Penttinen, A., 2014. "Bayesian analysis of a Gibbs hard-core point pattern model with varying repulsion range," Computational Statistics & Data Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 71(C), pages 530-541.
    16. Roman Flury & Reinhard Furrer, 2021. "Discussion on Competition for Spatial Statistics for Large Datasets," Journal of Agricultural, Biological and Environmental Statistics, Springer;The International Biometric Society;American Statistical Association, vol. 26(4), pages 599-603, December.
    17. Zhang, Tonglin, 2017. "An example of inconsistent MLE of spatial covariance parameters under increasing domain asymptotics," Statistics & Probability Letters, Elsevier, vol. 120(C), pages 108-113.
    18. Matthias Katzfuss & Joseph Guinness & Wenlong Gong & Daniel Zilber, 2020. "Vecchia Approximations of Gaussian-Process Predictions," Journal of Agricultural, Biological and Environmental Statistics, Springer;The International Biometric Society;American Statistical Association, vol. 25(3), pages 383-414, September.
    19. Fassò, A. & Finazzi, F. & Madonna, F., 2018. "Statistical issues in radiosonde observation of atmospheric temperature and humidity profiles," Statistics & Probability Letters, Elsevier, vol. 136(C), pages 97-100.
    20. Moreno Bevilacqua & Alfredo Alegria & Daira Velandia & Emilio Porcu, 2016. "Composite Likelihood Inference for Multivariate Gaussian Random Fields," Journal of Agricultural, Biological and Environmental Statistics, Springer;The International Biometric Society;American Statistical Association, vol. 21(3), pages 448-469, September.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:stapro:v:129:y:2017:i:c:p:182-188. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/622892/description#description .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.