Multivariate Gaussian Random Fields with Oscillating Covariance Functions using Systems of Stochastic Partial Differential Equations

Abstract: In this paper we propose a new approach for constructing \emph{multivariate} Gaussian random fields (GRFs) with oscillating covariance functions through systems of stochastic partial differential equations (SPDEs). We discuss how to build systems of SPDEs that introduces oscillation characteristics in the covariance functions of the multivariate GRFs. By choosing different parametrization of the equations, some GRFs can be made with oscillating covariance functions but other fields can have Mat\'ern covariance functions or close to Mat\'ern covariance functions. The multivariate GRFs constructed by solving the systems of SPDEs automatically fulfill the hard requirement of nonnegative definiteness for the covariance functions. The approximate weak solutions to the systems of SPDEs are used to represent the multivariate GRFs by multivariate Gaussian \emph{Markov} random fields (GMRFs). Since the multivariate GMRFs have sparse precision matrices (inverse of the covariance matrices), numerical algorithms for sparse matrices can be applied to the precision matrices for sampling and inference. Thus from a computational point of view, the \emph{big-n} problem can be partially solved with these types of models. Another advantage of the method is that the oscillation in the covariance function can be controlled directly by the parameters in the system of SPDEs. We show how to use this proposed approach with simulated data and real data examples.