HLIBCov: Parallel Hierarchical Matrix Approximation of Large Covariance Matrices and Likelihoods with Applications in Parameter Identification

Abstract: We provide more technical details about the HLIBCov package, which is using parallel hierarchical ($\H$-) matrices to identify unknown parameters of the covariance function (variance, smoothness, and covariance length). These parameters are estimated by maximizing the joint Gaussian log-likelihood function. The HLIBCov package approximates large dense inhomogeneous covariance matrices with a log-linear computational cost and storage requirement. We explain how to compute the Cholesky factorization, determinant, inverse and quadratic form in the H-matrix format. To demonstrate the numerical performance, we identify three unknown parameters in an example with 2,000,000 locations on a PC-desktop.