Estimating deformations of isotropic Gaussian random fields on the plane

This paper presents a new approach to the estimation of the deformation of an isotropic Gaussian random field on ℝ2 based on dense observations of a single realization of the deformed random field. Under this framework we investigate the identification and estimation of deformations. We then present a complete methodological package—from model assumptions to algorithmic recovery of the deformation—for the class of nonstationary processes obtained by deforming isotropic Gaussian random fields.