EasyKrig 2.0 -- A convenient tool for geostatistics

D. Chu

It is well known that kriging is a statistic method that provides best linear unbiased estimation (BLUE). As a geostatistical tool, kriging has been widely used in mining, geology, hydrology and oceanography. However, one of the difficulties in using the existing kriging toolboxes is the knowledge of defining the necessary parameters to run the programs, especially for people who are not very familiar with kriging. EasyKrig is a Matlab program package allowing users to process the data using the kriging technique. EasyKrig is graphic user interface (GUI) driven and user friendly software package. One of the biggest advantages of EasyKrig is its ease of use. A user who is not very familiar with kriging is able to use the program to process his/her own data and obtain satisfactory results with very limited learning time.

EasyKrig2.0 is an updated version of Easykrig1.0 which was released November, 1999. EasyKrig2.0 is available at http://globec.whoi.edu/software/kriging/easy_krig/easy_krig.html.

Since the release of EasyKrig1.0 last year, we have received many positive responses including suggestions and recommendations from users from many countries. Based on version 1.0, EasyKrig2.0 has greatly improved its ability to

  1. define a suitable window size and position by the user. This new feature can solve the problem that the display window could be off-centered when running on machines having different screen resolutions.

  2. handle the different types of input files: Variables of the x and y-axes of a 2D profile are not restricted to latitude/longitude, or X(km)/Y(km) anymore, they can be any type of variables (depth, time, longitude, latitude, range, etc.) and any unit (km, m, sec., deg, etc.). The new version also allows users to provide their own program to load the data into the memory.

  3. include the anisotropic feature in the raw data. The added 2D variogram capability allows users to specify the optimum anisotropic parameters, orientation angle and the aspect ratio, and to achieve the best kriging results.

  4. perform batch file processing. This feature will greatly reduce the amount of time to process a group of files that have the same variogram and kriging parameters. In batch file processing mode, the program will automatically process and save all kriging results to output files, one output file corresponding to an input file.

  5. perform cross validation of the kriging model. Several validation models provide useful information for user to evaluate their results.

  6. provide more visualization options.