Estimation and Model Identification for Continuous Spatial Processes

SUMMARY Formal parameter estimation and model identification procedures for continuous domain spatial processes are introduced. The processes are assumed to be adequately described by a linear model with residuals that follow a second-order stationary Gaussian random field and data are assumed to consist of noisy observations of the process at arbitrary sampling locations. A general class of two-dimensional rational spectral density functions with elliptic contours is used to model the spatial covariance function. An iterative estimation procedure alleviates many of the computational difficulties of conventional maximum likelihood estimation for non-lattice data. The procedure is applied to several generated data sets and to an actual ground-water data set.