Block Vecchia Approximation for Scalable and Efficient Gaussian Process Computations

Fuente: arXiv
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Auteurs principaux: Pan, Qilong, Abdulah, Sameh, Genton, Marc G., Sun, Ying
Format: Preprint
Publié: 2024
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author Pan, Qilong
Abdulah, Sameh
Genton, Marc G.
Sun, Ying
author_facet Pan, Qilong
Abdulah, Sameh
Genton, Marc G.
Sun, Ying
contents Gaussian Processes (GPs) are vital for modeling and predicting irregularly-spaced, large geospatial datasets. However, their computations often pose significant challenges in large-scale applications. One popular method to approximate GPs is the Vecchia approximation, which approximates the full likelihood via a series of conditional probabilities. The classical Vecchia approximation uses univariate conditional distributions, which leads to redundant evaluations and memory burdens. To address this challenge, our study introduces block Vecchia, which evaluates each multivariate conditional distribution of a block of observations, with blocks formed using the K-means algorithm. The proposed GPU framework for the block Vecchia uses varying batched linear algebra operations to compute multivariate conditional distributions concurrently, notably diminishing the frequent likelihood evaluations. Diving into the factor affecting the accuracy of the block Vecchia, the neighbor selection criterion is investigated, where we found that the random ordering markedly enhances the approximated quality as the block count becomes large. To verify the scalability and efficiency of the algorithm, we conduct a series of numerical studies and simulations, demonstrating their practical utility and effectiveness compared to the exact GP. Moreover, we tackle large-scale real datasets using the block Vecchia method, i.e., high-resolution 3D profile wind speed with a million points.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2410_04477
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Block Vecchia Approximation for Scalable and Efficient Gaussian Process Computations
Pan, Qilong
Abdulah, Sameh
Genton, Marc G.
Sun, Ying
Computation
Computational Engineering, Finance, and Science
Gaussian Processes (GPs) are vital for modeling and predicting irregularly-spaced, large geospatial datasets. However, their computations often pose significant challenges in large-scale applications. One popular method to approximate GPs is the Vecchia approximation, which approximates the full likelihood via a series of conditional probabilities. The classical Vecchia approximation uses univariate conditional distributions, which leads to redundant evaluations and memory burdens. To address this challenge, our study introduces block Vecchia, which evaluates each multivariate conditional distribution of a block of observations, with blocks formed using the K-means algorithm. The proposed GPU framework for the block Vecchia uses varying batched linear algebra operations to compute multivariate conditional distributions concurrently, notably diminishing the frequent likelihood evaluations. Diving into the factor affecting the accuracy of the block Vecchia, the neighbor selection criterion is investigated, where we found that the random ordering markedly enhances the approximated quality as the block count becomes large. To verify the scalability and efficiency of the algorithm, we conduct a series of numerical studies and simulations, demonstrating their practical utility and effectiveness compared to the exact GP. Moreover, we tackle large-scale real datasets using the block Vecchia method, i.e., high-resolution 3D profile wind speed with a million points.
title Block Vecchia Approximation for Scalable and Efficient Gaussian Process Computations
topic Computation
Computational Engineering, Finance, and Science
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2410.04477