Some covariance models based on normal scale mixtures

Modelling spatio-temporal processes has become an important issue in current research. Since Gaussian processes are essentially determined by their second order structure, broad classes of covariance functions are of interest. Here, a new class is described that merges and generalizes various models presented in the literature, in particular models in Gneiting (J. Amer. Statist. Assoc. 97 (2002) 590--600) and Stein (Nonstationary spatial covariance functions (2005) Univ. Chicago). Furthermore, new models and a multivariate extension are introduced.Comment: Published in at http://dx.doi.org/10.3150/09-BEJ226 the Bernoulli (http://isi.cbs.nl/bernoulli/) by the International Statistical Institute/Bernoulli Society (http://isi.cbs.nl/BS/bshome.htm

Sampling Sup-Normalized Spectral Functions for Brown-Resnick Processes

Sup-normalized spectral functions form building blocks of max-stable and Pareto processes and therefore play an important role in modeling spatial extremes. For one of the most popular examples, the Brown-Resnick process, simulation is not straightforward. In this paper, we generalize two approaches for simulation via Markov Chain Monte Carlo methods and rejection sampling by introducing new classes of proposal densities. In both cases, we provide an optimal choice of the proposal density with respect to sampling efficiency. The performance of the procedures is demonstrated in an example.Comment: 11 pages, 2 figure

Systematic co-occurrence of tail correlation functions among max-stable processes

The tail correlation function (TCF) is one of the most popular bivariate extremal dependence measures that has entered the literature under various names. We study to what extent the TCF can distinguish between different classes of well-known max-stable processes and identify essentially different processes sharing the same TCF.Comment: 31 pages, 4 Tables, 5 Figure

Stochastic models which separate fractal dimension and Hurst effect

Fractal behavior and long-range dependence have been observed in an astonishing number of physical systems. Either phenomenon has been modeled by self-similar random functions, thereby implying a linear relationship between fractal dimension, a measure of roughness, and Hurst coefficient, a measure of long-memory dependence. This letter introduces simple stochastic models which allow for any combination of fractal dimension and Hurst exponent. We synthesize images from these models, with arbitrary fractal properties and power-law correlations, and propose a test for self-similarity.Comment: 8 pages, 2 figure