Entropy-based correlated shrinkage of spatial random processes

This paper proposes a two-stage correlated non-linear shrinkage estimation methodology for spatial random processes. A block hard thresholding design, based on Shannon’s entropy, is formulated in the first stage. The thresholding design is adaptive to each resolution level, because it depends on the empirical distribution function of the mutual information ratios between empirical wavelet blocks and the random variables of interest, at each scale. In the second stage, a global correlated (inter- and intra-scale) shrinkage is applied to approximate the values of interest of the underlying spatial process. Additionally, a simulation study is developed, in the Gaussian context, to analyze the sensitivity, measured by empirical stochastic ordering, of the entropy-based block hard thresholding stage in relation to the parameters characterizing local variability (fractality) and dependence range of the spatial process of interest, the noise level, and the design of the region of interest.