---
title: "5. Spatial covariance functions"
output: rmarkdown::html_vignette
bibliography: biblio.bib
vignette: >
  %\VignetteIndexEntry{5. Spatial covariance functions}
  %\VignetteEngine{knitr::rmarkdown}
  %\VignetteEncoding{UTF-8}
  \usepackage[utf8]{inputenc}
---

```{r, include = FALSE}
knitr::opts_chunk$set(
  collapse = TRUE,
  comment = "#>"
)
```

In this short vignette, we illustrate the family of spatial covariance functions
implemented in this package. Note that, all of them are based on the assumptions
of stationarity and isotropy of the underlying Gaussian random field
(GRF). Also, the implementations (and definitions) are based on the families of
spatial _correlation_ functions presented in @diggle2007model. The
implementations make use of the `RcppArmadillo` [@eddelbuettel2014rcpparmadillo]
package and the STL library algorithms (C++ 11)^[for this problem, the
implementation using the sequential algorithms of the STL library was more
efficient than those using the `RcppParallel` package].

The first spatial covariance family implemented is the so-called Matérn
Covariance function, which is defined as
\[
{\rm C}(h; \sigma^2, \phi, \kappa) = \sigma^2 \frac{(h / \phi)^{\kappa}
K_{\kappa}( h / \phi )} { 2^{\kappa - 1} \Gamma(\kappa) }.
\]
Where $h$ is the distance between two points, $\sigma^2$ is a variance
parameter, $\phi$ is the scale parameter that controls the reach of the spatial
dependence, and $\kappa$ is a shape parameter that controls the smoothness of
the process. The function $K_{\kappa}(\cdot)$ is the $\kappa$-order Modified
Bessel function of Second-Kind. There are special cases of the Matérn family
implemented on the package, when setting $\kappa$ to $1/2$, $3/2$, $5/2$, or
$\to \infty$ the expression simplifies. The first and the last cases yield to
the Exponential and Gaussian family, respectively.

The second spatial covariance family implemented is the Powered Exponential
Covariance function, it is defined as
\[
{\rm C}(h; \sigma^2, \phi, \kappa) = \sigma^2 \exp \{ - (h / \phi)^{\kappa} \},
\]
where $h$ is the distance between two points, $\sigma^2$, $\phi$, and $\kappa$
analogous to the Matérn function.

The penultimate option is the Gaussian family of covariance functions. The
expression associated with this family is written as
\[
{\rm C}(h; \sigma^2, \phi) = \sigma^2 \exp \left\{ - \frac{h ^ 2}{2 \phi ^ 2} \right\},
\]
again, the parameters are analogous to what have defined before in this
vignette.

Lastly, we have implemented the Spherical family of covariance functions,
defined as
\[
{\rm C}(h; \sigma^2, \phi) = 
\sigma^2 
\begin{cases}
1 - \frac{3}{2} (h / \phi) + \frac{1}{2} (h / \phi) ^ 3 & , \,
0 \leq h \leq \phi \\
0 & , \, h > \phi,
\end{cases}
\]
where, again, $\sigma^2$ is a variance parameter, while $\phi > 0$ is a
parameter with the same magnitude as the distances on which the function is
being evaluated at and controls the speed of decay of the spatial covariances as
we increase the distance between two points.

# Reference
