We develop an asymptotic limit theory for nonparametric estimation of the noise covariance kernel in linear parabolic stochastic partial differential equations (SPDEs) with additive colored noise, using space-time infill asymptotics. The method employs discretized infinite-dimensional realized covariations and requires only mild regularity assumptions on the kernel to ensure consistent estimation and asymptotic normality of the estimator. On this basis, we construct omnibus goodness-of-fit tests for the noise covariance that are independent of the SPDE's differential operator. Our framework accommodates a variety of spatial sampling schemes and allows for reliable inference even when spatial resolution is coarser than temporal resolution.
Petersson et al. (Thu,) studied this question.