In the last 20 years statistical methods have been applied in geodesy with considerable success, both in physical geodesy (least squares collocation, variance‐covariance propagation) and in geodetic measuring technique (error propagation and interpolation, inertial navigation, adjustment, diagnosis, and design of networks). The geodetic stochastic process is introduced per definition as the representation of a geophysical random field afflicted with observational errors, including the special cases of the (almost) error‐free field (physical‐geodetic process) and the pure error field (operational‐geodetic process). Geodesy is an approximation science, planar approximation being of great practical importance. It can be realized by projection onto a tangential plane to the earth’s surface and/or other planes of measurement and computation. The review treats the covariance functions of planar processes for different geodetic problems in the light of literature on the subject and under systematizing aspects—inter alia, gravity field, field of atmospheric refraction, error field; covariance estimation and propagation; ideal statistical structures as homogeneity, isotropy, axisymmetry, but also the physical, statistical, and geophysical significance of the prerequisites and solutions as well as problems that are still unsolved.