@article{AcevedoDeWiljesReich2017, author = {Acevedo, Walter and De Wiljes, Jana and Reich, Sebastian}, title = {Second-order accurate ensemble transform particle filters}, series = {SIAM journal on scientific computing}, volume = {39}, journal = {SIAM journal on scientific computing}, number = {5}, publisher = {Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics}, address = {Philadelphia}, issn = {1064-8275}, doi = {10.1137/16M1095184}, pages = {A1834 -- A1850}, year = {2017}, abstract = {Particle filters (also called sequential Monte Carlo methods) are widely used for state and parameter estimation problems in the context of nonlinear evolution equations. The recently proposed ensemble transform particle filter (ETPF) [S. Reich, SIAM T. Sci. Comput., 35, (2013), pp. A2013-A2014[ replaces the resampling step of a standard particle filter by a linear transformation which allows for a hybridization of particle filters with ensemble Kalman filters and renders the resulting hybrid filters applicable to spatially extended systems. However, the linear transformation step is computationally expensive and leads to an underestimation of the ensemble spread for small and moderate ensemble sizes. Here we address both of these shortcomings by developing second order accurate extensions of the ETPF. These extensions allow one in particular to replace the exact solution of a linear transport problem by its Sinkhorn approximation. It is also demonstrated that the nonlinear ensemble transform filter arises as a special case of our general framework. We illustrate the performance of the second-order accurate filters for the chaotic Lorenz-63 and Lorenz-96 models and a dynamic scene-viewing model. The numerical results for the Lorenz-63 and Lorenz-96 models demonstrate that significant accuracy improvements can be achieved in comparison to a standard ensemble Kalman filter and the ETPF for small to moderate ensemble sizes. The numerical results for the scene-viewing model reveal, on the other hand, that second-order corrections can lead to statistically inconsistent samples from the posterior parameter distribution.}, language = {en} } @article{PathirajaMoradkhaniMarshalletal.2018, author = {Pathiraja, Sahani Darschika and Moradkhani, H. and Marshall, L. and Sharma, Ashish and Geenens, G.}, title = {Data-driven model uncertainty estimation in hydrologic data assimilation}, series = {Water resources research : WRR / American Geophysical Union}, volume = {54}, journal = {Water resources research : WRR / American Geophysical Union}, number = {2}, publisher = {American Geophysical Union}, address = {Washington}, issn = {0043-1397}, doi = {10.1002/2018WR022627}, pages = {1252 -- 1280}, year = {2018}, abstract = {The increasing availability of earth observations necessitates mathematical methods to optimally combine such data with hydrologic models. Several algorithms exist for such purposes, under the umbrella of data assimilation (DA). However, DA methods are often applied in a suboptimal fashion for complex real-world problems, due largely to several practical implementation issues. One such issue is error characterization, which is known to be critical for a successful assimilation. Mischaracterized errors lead to suboptimal forecasts, and in the worst case, to degraded estimates even compared to the no assimilation case. Model uncertainty characterization has received little attention relative to other aspects of DA science. Traditional methods rely on subjective, ad hoc tuning factors or parametric distribution assumptions that may not always be applicable. We propose a novel data-driven approach (named SDMU) to model uncertainty characterization for DA studies where (1) the system states are partially observed and (2) minimal prior knowledge of the model error processes is available, except that the errors display state dependence. It includes an approach for estimating the uncertainty in hidden model states, with the end goal of improving predictions of observed variables. The SDMU is therefore suited to DA studies where the observed variables are of primary interest. Its efficacy is demonstrated through a synthetic case study with low-dimensional chaotic dynamics and a real hydrologic experiment for one-day-ahead streamflow forecasting. In both experiments, the proposed method leads to substantial improvements in the hidden states and observed system outputs over a standard method involving perturbation with Gaussian noise.}, language = {en} }