On multimodality of the likelihood in the spatial linear model

Abstract

A popular covariance scheme used for the spatial linear model in geostatistics has spherical form. However, the likelihood is not twice differentiable with respect to the range parameter, and this raises some questions regarding the unimodality of the likelihood. We compare the likelihoods of the spatial linear model for small samples under this scheme and the doubly geometric scheme. Also, a power covariance with range parameter is proposed. In view of potential multimodal likelihoods for small samples for this model, a convenient profile likelihood is introduced and studied.