‘Sample Sample variance | standard deviation _24€06)427 460.5) 21.53 Se, - 2G, -) (cov, y) = SE ~Q1-3.@-10+ 3 nat aT 3 222 Condaton Cos ie creo tise aa G.10)‘Number of Pairs. A commonly used method to ensure suf ficient pairs fora given lag distance storestrict the maximum. istance at which the variogram 15 computed, For a given te- gion of stationarity, the possible number of pairs decreases as, lag distance increases. Numerical Examples 3.1 and 3.2, where the number of pairs decreased as lag distance in- creased, illustrated this, Eventually, as the lag distance corre- sponds to the maximum possible cistance between any two sample points, only one data pair may be available at that lag, distance. Obviously, we may not be able to obtain a reliable estimate of the variogram at that lag distance. To avoid this problem, a rule of thumb used in the geostatistical literature 3s to use half the maximum possible distance within a region Of interest as the maximum lag distance at which the vario- ‘gram is calculated. For example, if 10,000 ft is the maximum distance between any two sample points within the region of interest, the variogram estimation is restricted to a maximum lag distance of 5,000 ft.