Search Results

You are looking at 1 - 6 of 6 items for

  • Author or Editor: Xiaodong Luo x
  • Refine by Access: All Content x
Clear All Modify Search
Xiaodong Luo
and
Ibrahim Hoteit

Abstract

A robust ensemble filtering scheme based on the H filtering theory is proposed. The optimal H filter is derived by minimizing the supremum (or maximum) of a predefined cost function, a criterion different from the minimum variance used in the Kalman filter. By design, the H filter is more robust than the Kalman filter, in the sense that the estimation error in the H filter in general has a finite growth rate with respect to the uncertainties in assimilation, except for a special case that corresponds to the Kalman filter.

The original form of the H filter contains global constraints in time, which may be inconvenient for sequential data assimilation problems. Therefore a variant is introduced that solves some time-local constraints instead, and hence it is called the time-local H filter (TLHF). By analogy to the ensemble Kalman filter (EnKF), the concept of ensemble time-local H filter (EnTLHF) is also proposed. The general form of the EnTLHF is outlined, and some of its special cases are discussed. In particular, it is shown that an EnKF with certain covariance inflation is essentially an EnTLHF. In this sense, the EnTLHF provides a general framework for conducting covariance inflation in the EnKF-based methods. Some numerical examples are used to assess the relative robustness of the TLHF–EnTLHF in comparison with the corresponding KF–EnKF method.

Full access
Xiaodong Luo
and
Ibrahim Hoteit

Abstract

This article examines the influence of covariance inflation on the distance between the measured observation and the simulated (or predicted) observation with respect to the state estimate. In order for the aforementioned distance to be bounded in a certain interval, some sufficient conditions are derived, indicating that the covariance inflation factor should be bounded in a certain interval, and that the inflation bounds are related to the maximum and minimum eigenvalues of certain matrices. Implications of these analytic results are discussed, and a numerical experiment is presented to verify the validity of the analysis conducted.

Full access
Xiaodong Luo
and
Ibrahim Hoteit

Abstract

The ensemble Kalman filter (EnKF) is an efficient algorithm for many data assimilation problems. In certain circumstances, however, divergence of the EnKF might be spotted. In previous studies, the authors proposed an observation-space-based strategy, called residual nudging, to improve the stability of the EnKF when dealing with linear observation operators. The main idea behind residual nudging is to monitor and, if necessary, adjust the distances (misfits) between the real observations and the simulated ones of the state estimates, in the hope that by doing so one may be able to obtain better estimation accuracy.

In the present study, residual nudging is extended and modified in order to handle nonlinear observation operators. Such extension and modification result in an iterative filtering framework that, under suitable conditions, is able to achieve the objective of residual nudging for data assimilation problems with nonlinear observation operators. The 40-dimensional Lorenz-96 model is used to illustrate the performance of the iterative filter. Numerical results show that, while a normal EnKF may diverge with nonlinear observation operators, the proposed iterative filter remains stable and leads to reasonable estimation accuracy under various experimental settings.

Full access
Xiaodong Luo
and
Ibrahim Hoteit

Abstract

This study considers the data assimilation problem in coupled systems, which consists of two components (subsystems) interacting with each other through certain coupling terms. A straightforward way to tackle the assimilation problem in such systems is to concatenate the states of the subsystems into one augmented state vector, so that a standard ensemble Kalman filter (EnKF) can be directly applied. This work presents a divided state-space estimation strategy, in which data assimilation is carried out with respect to each individual subsystem, involving quantities from the subsystem itself and correlated quantities from other coupled subsystems. On top of the divided state-space estimation strategy, the authors also consider the possibility of running the subsystems separately. Combining these two ideas, a few variants of the EnKF are derived. The introduction of these variants is mainly inspired by the current status and challenges in coupled data assimilation problems and thus might be of interest from a practical point of view. Numerical experiments with a multiscale Lorenz 96 model are conducted to evaluate the performance of these variants against that of the conventional EnKF. In addition, specific for coupled data assimilation problems, two prototypes of extensions of the presented methods are also developed in order to achieve a trade-off between efficiency and accuracy.

Full access
Ibrahim Hoteit
,
Xiaodong Luo
, and
Dinh-Tuan Pham

Abstract

This paper investigates an approximation scheme of the optimal nonlinear Bayesian filter based on the Gaussian mixture representation of the state probability distribution function. The resulting filter is similar to the particle filter, but is different from it in that the standard weight-type correction in the particle filter is complemented by the Kalman-type correction with the associated covariance matrices in the Gaussian mixture. The authors show that this filter is an algorithm in between the Kalman filter and the particle filter, and therefore is referred to as the particle Kalman filter (PKF).

In the PKF, the solution of a nonlinear filtering problem is expressed as the weighted average of an “ensemble of Kalman filters” operating in parallel. Running an ensemble of Kalman filters is, however, computationally prohibitive for realistic atmospheric and oceanic data assimilation problems. For this reason, the authors consider the construction of the PKF through an “ensemble” of ensemble Kalman filters (EnKFs) instead, and call the implementation the particle EnKF (PEnKF). It is shown that different types of the EnKFs can be considered as special cases of the PEnKF. Similar to the situation in the particle filter, the authors also introduce a resampling step to the PEnKF in order to reduce the risk of weights collapse and improve the performance of the filter. Numerical experiments with the strongly nonlinear Lorenz-96 model are presented and discussed.

Full access
Hajoon Song
,
Ibrahim Hoteit
,
Bruce D. Cornuelle
,
Xiaodong Luo
, and
Aneesh C. Subramanian

Abstract

A new hybrid ensemble Kalman filter/four-dimensional variational data assimilation (EnKF/4D-VAR) approach is introduced to mitigate background covariance limitations in the EnKF. The work is based on the adaptive EnKF (AEnKF) method, which bears a strong resemblance to the hybrid EnKF/three-dimensional variational data assimilation (3D-VAR) method. In the AEnKF, the representativeness of the EnKF ensemble is regularly enhanced with new members generated after back projection of the EnKF analysis residuals to state space using a 3D-VAR [or optimal interpolation (OI)] scheme with a preselected background covariance matrix. The idea here is to reformulate the transformation of the residuals as a 4D-VAR problem, constraining the new member with model dynamics and the previous observations. This should provide more information for the estimation of the new member and reduce dependence of the AEnKF on the assumed stationary background covariance matrix. This is done by integrating the analysis residuals backward in time with the adjoint model. Numerical experiments are performed with the Lorenz-96 model under different scenarios to test the new approach and to evaluate its performance with respect to the EnKF and the hybrid EnKF/3D-VAR. The new method leads to the least root-mean-square estimation errors as long as the linear assumption guaranteeing the stability of the adjoint model holds. It is also found to be less sensitive to choices of the assimilation system inputs and parameters.

Full access