A Bayesian approach to data assimilation

Colin Grudzien

Assistant Professor of Statistics

University of Nevada, Reno logo.

Presented at the Joint ICTP-IUGG Workshop on Data Assimilation and Inverse Problems in Geophysical Sciences

19 October, 2021

Outline

  • The following topics will be covered in this lecture
    • Observation-analysis-forecast cycles
    • Hidden Markov models and Bayesian analysis
    • Bayesian maximum-a-posteriori (MAP) analysis in Gaussian models
    • The ensemble Kalman filter and smoother (EnKF / EnKS)
    • The 4D cost function and VAR approaches
    • Sequential EnVAR estimators in the EnKF analysis:
      • the iterative ensemble Kalman smoother (IEnKS)
      • the single-iteration ensemble Kalman smoother (SIEnKS)

Motivation

  • In applications such as short-range weather prediction, data assimilation provides a means to sequentially and recursively update forecasts with newly incoming information.
  • The Bayesian approach to DA has become widely adopted because it provides a unified treatment of the tools from statistical estimation, nonlinear optimization and machine learning for handling such a problem.
  • Let’s suppose that the dynamical physical states can be written in a vector, \( \pmb{x}_k \in \mathbb{R}^{N_x} \), where \( k \) corresponds to some time \( t_k \).
  • Abstractly, we will represent the time-evolution of these states with the nonlinear map \( \mathcal{M} \), \[ \begin{align}\\ \pmb{x}_k = \mathcal{M}_{k} \left(\pmb{x}_{k-1}, \boldsymbol{\lambda}\right) + \boldsymbol{\eta}_k \end{align} \] where
    • \( \pmb{x}_{k-1} \) is the vector of physical states at an earlier time \( t_{k-1} \);
    • \( \boldsymbol{\lambda} \) is a vector of uncertain physical parameters on which the time evolution depends;
    • \( \boldsymbol{\eta}_k \) is an additive, stochastic noise term, representing errors in our model for the physical process.
  • We will estimate the random vector \( {\color{#d95f02} {\pmb{x}_k } } \) with a prior distribution on \( \left(\pmb{x}_{k-1}, \boldsymbol{\lambda}\right) \) and knowledge of \( \mathcal{M}_{k} \) and knowledge of how \( \boldsymbol{\eta}_k \) is distributed.
  • At time \( t_{k-1} \), we will make a forecast for the distribution of \( \pmb{x}_k \) with our prior knowledge, including the physics-based model.
  • For the rest of this lecture, we will restrict to the case that \( \boldsymbol{\lambda} \) is a known constant, and the forecast model is perfect, \[ \begin{align} \pmb{x}_k = \mathcal{M}_{k} \left(\pmb{x}_{k-1}\right), \end{align} \] for simplicity.

Motivation

  • Suppose that we are also given real-world observations \( {\color{#7570b3} {\pmb{y}_k\in\mathbb{R}^{N_y}} } \) related to the physical states by, \[ {\color{#7570b3} { \pmb{y}_k = \mathcal{H}_k \left(\pmb{x}_k\right) + \boldsymbol{\epsilon}_k } } \] where
    • \( {\color{#7570b3} {\mathcal{H}_k:\mathbb{R}^{N_x} \rightarrow \mathbb{R}^{N_y} } } \) is a nonlinear map relating the states we wish to estimate \( \pmb{x}_k \) to the values that are observed \( {\color{#7570b3} { \pmb{y}_k} } \).
      • Typically \( N_y \ll N_x \) so this is information is sparse and observations are not \( 1:1 \) with the unobserved states.
    • \( \boldsymbol{\epsilon}_k \) is an additive, stochastic noise term representing errors in the measurements.
  • Therefore, at time \( t_k \) we will have a forecast distribution for the states \( \pmb{x}_k \) generated by our prior on \( \pmb{x}_{k-1} \) and our physics-based model \( \mathcal{M} \).
  • We will also have an observation \( \pmb{y}_k \) with uncertainty.
  • We wish to find a posterior distribution for \( \pmb{x}_k \) conditioned on \( \pmb{y}_k \).

Observation-analysis-forecast cycle