Copula-Based Approaches for Analyzing Non-Gaussian Spatial Data

Speaker: Judy Wang, GWU and NSF

Abstract: Many existing methods for analyzing spatial data rely on the Gaussian assumption, which is violated in many applications such as wind speed, precipitation and COVID mortality data. In this talk, I will discuss several recent developments of copula-based approaches for analyzing non-Gaussian spatial data. First, I will introduce a copula-based spatio-temporal model for analyzing spatio-temporal data and a semiparametric estimator. Second, I will present a copula-based multiple indicator kriging model for the analysis of non-Gaussian spatial data by thresholding the spatial observations at a given set of quantile values. The proposed algorithms are computationally simple, since they model the marginal distribution and the spatio-temporal dependence separately. Instead of assuming a parametric distribution, the approaches model the marginal distributions nonparametrically and thus offer more flexibility. The methods will also provide convenient ways to construct both point and interval predictions based on the estimated conditional quantiles. I will present some numerical results including the analyses of a wind speed and a precipitation data. If time allows, I will also discuss a recent work on copula-based approach for analyzing count spatial data.