Spatial mapping with Gaussian processes and nonstationary Fourier features
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Published version
OA Location
Author(s)
Ton, Jean-Francois
Flaxman, Seth
Sejdinovic, Dino
Bhatt, Samir
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
The use of covariance kernels is ubiquitous in the field of spatial statistics. Kernels allow data to be mapped into high-dimensional feature spaces and can thus extend simple linear additive methods to nonlinear methods with higher order interactions. However, until recently, there has been a strong reliance on a limited class of stationary kernels such as the Matérn or squared exponential, limiting the expressiveness of these modelling approaches. Recent machine learning research has focused on spectral representations to model arbitrary stationary kernels and introduced more general representations that include classes of nonstationary kernels. In this paper, we exploit the connections between Fourier feature representations, Gaussian processes and neural networks to generalise previous approaches and develop a simple and efficient framework to learn arbitrarily complex nonstationary kernel functions directly from the data, while taking care to avoid overfitting using state-of-the-art methods from deep learning. We highlight the very broad array of kernel classes that could be created within this framework. We apply this to a time series dataset and a remote sensing problem involving land surface temperature in Eastern Africa. We show that without increasing the computational or storage complexity, nonstationary kernels can be used to improve generalisation performance and provide more interpretable results.
Date Issued
2018-12
Date Acceptance
2018-02-26
Citation
Spatial Statistics, 2018, 28, pp.59-78
ISSN
2211-6753
Publisher
Elsevier
Start Page
59
End Page
78
Journal / Book Title
Spatial Statistics
Volume
28
Copyright Statement
©2018 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Sponsor
Medical Research Council (MRC)
Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
Medical Research Council (MRC)
Identifier
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2211675317302890?via%3Dihub
Grant Number
MR/K010174/1B
1606H5002/JH6
MR/R015600/1
Subjects
Science & Technology
Physical Sciences
Technology
Geosciences, Multidisciplinary
Mathematics, Interdisciplinary Applications
Remote Sensing
Statistics & Probability
Geology
Mathematics
Gaussian process
Nonstationary
Spatial statistics
Random Fourier features
MARKOV RANDOM-FIELDS
INFERENCE
MODELS
Gaussian process
Nonstationary
Random Fourier features
Spatial statistics
Publication Status
Published
Date Publish Online
2018-03-29