Abstract
In spatial statistics, the screening effect historically refers to the situation when the observations located far from the predictand receive a small (ideally, zero) kriging weight. Several factors play a crucial role in this phenomenon: among them, the spatial design, the dimension of the spatial domain where the observations are defined, the mean-square properties of the underlying random field and its covariance function or, equivalently, its spectral density. The tour de force by Michael L. Stein provides a formal definition of the screening effect and puts emphasis on the Matérn covariance function, advocated as a good covariance function to yield such an effect. Yet, it is often recommended not to use covariance functions with a compact support. This paper shows that some classes of covariance functions being compactly supported allow for a screening effect according to Stein’s definition, in both regular and irregular settings of the spatial design. Further, numerical experiments suggest that the screening effect under a class of compactly supported covariance functions is even stronger than the screening effect under a Matérn model.
Original language | English |
---|---|
Pages (from-to) | 2510-2528 |
Number of pages | 19 |
Journal | Electronic Journal of Statistics |
Volume | 14 |
Issue number | 2 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - 2020 |
Keywords
- Compact support
- Covariance function
- Generalized Wendland
- Matérn
- Screening effect
- Spatial prediction