Needlet approximation for isotropic random fields on the sphere (Q514219)

The authors study multiscale approximations of random fields. They use spherical needlets to approximate realizations of random fields on the sphere. Convergence in mean and pointwise senses is investigated. Convergence rates of fully discrete and semidiscrete needlet approximations are compared for smooth 2-weakly isotropic random fields. It is shown that both cases have the same convergence order. Numerical comparisons of the discrete needlet approximation and the truncated Fourier series approximation are presented. It is shown that the considered needlet approximations have an advantage for local approximation problems.