No Arabic abstract
In statistical data assimilation (SDA) and supervised machine learning (ML), we wish to transfer information from observations to a model of the processes underlying those observations. For SDA, the model consists of a set of differential equations that describe the dynamics of a physical system. For ML, the model is usually constructed using other strategies. In this paper, we develop a systematic formulation based on Monte Carlo sampling to achieve such information transfer. Following the derivation of an appropriate target distribution, we present the formulation based on the standard Metropolis-Hasting (MH) procedure and the Hamiltonian Monte Carlo (HMC) method for performing the high dimensional integrals that appear. To the extensive literature on MH and HMC, we add (1) an annealing method using a hyperparameter that governs the precision of the model to identify and explore the highest probability regions of phase space dominating those integrals, and (2) a strategy for initializing the state space search. The efficacy of the proposed formulation is demonstrated using a nonlinear dynamical model with chaotic solutions widely used in geophysics.
Statistical Data Assimilation (SDA) is the transfer of information from field or laboratory observations to a user selected model of the dynamical system producing those observations. The data is noisy and the model has errors; the information transfer addresses properties of the conditional probability distribution of the states of the model conditioned on the observations. The quantities of interest in SDA are the conditional expected values of functions of the model state, and these require the approximate evaluation of high dimensional integrals. We introduce a conditional probability distribution and use the Laplace method with annealing to identify the maxima of the conditional probability distribution. The annealing method slowly increases the precision term of the model as it enters the Laplace method. In this paper, we extend the idea of precision annealing (PA) to Monte Carlo calculations of conditional expected values using Metropolis-Hastings methods.
Data-driven prediction and physics-agnostic machine-learning methods have attracted increased interest in recent years achieving forecast horizons going well beyond those to be expected for chaotic dynamical systems. In a separate strand of research data-assimilation has been successfully used to optimally combine forecast models and their inherent uncertainty with incoming noisy observations. The key idea in our work here is to achieve increased forecast capabilities by judiciously combining machine-learning algorithms and data assimilation. We combine the physics-agnostic data-driven approach of random feature maps as a forecast model within an ensemble Kalman filter data assimilation procedure. The machine-learning model is learned sequentially by incorporating incoming noisy observations. We show that the obtained forecast model has remarkably good forecast skill while being computationally cheap once trained. Going beyond the task of forecasting, we show that our method can be used to generate reliable ensembles for probabilistic forecasting as well as to learn effective model closure in multi-scale systems.
Monte-Carlo (MC) methods, based on random updates and the trial-and-error principle, are well suited to retrieve particle size distributions from small-angle scattering patterns of dilute solutions of scatterers. The size sensitivity of size determination methods in relation to the range of scattering vectors covered by the data is discussed. Improvements are presented to existing MC methods in which the particle shape is assumed to be known. A discussion of the problems with the ambiguous convergence criteria of the MC methods are given and a convergence criterion is proposed, which also allows the determination of uncertainties on the determined size distributions.
Chaos is ubiquitous in physical systems. The associated sensitivity to initial conditions is a significant obstacle in forecasting the weather and other geophysical fluid flows. Data assimilation is the process whereby the uncertainty in initial conditions is reduced by the astute combination of model predictions and real-time data. This chapter reviews recent findings from investigations on the impact of chaos on data assimilation methods: for the Kalman filter and smoother in linear systems, analytic results are derived; for their ensemble-bas
Data assimilation leads naturally to a Bayesian formulation in which the posterior probability distribution of the system state, given the observations, plays a central conceptual role. The aim of this paper is to use this Bayesian posterior probability distribution as a gold standard against which to evaluate various commonly used data assimilation algorithms. A key aspect of geophysical data assimilation is the high dimensionality and low predictability of the computational model. With this in mind, yet with the goal of allowing an explicit and accurate computation of the posterior distribution, we study the 2D Navier-Stokes equations in a periodic geometry. We compute the posterior probability distribution by state-of-the-art statistical sampling techniques. The commonly used algorithms that we evaluate against this accurate gold standard, as quantified by comparing the relative error in reproducing its moments, are 4DVAR and a variety of sequential filtering approximations based on 3DVAR and on extended and ensemble Kalman filters. The primary conclusions are that: (i) with appropriate parameter choices, approximate filters can perform well in reproducing the mean of the desired probability distribution; (ii) however they typically perform poorly when attempting to reproduce the covariance; (iii) this poor performance is compounded by the need to modify the covariance, in order to induce stability. Thus, whilst filters can be a useful tool in predicting mean behavior, they should be viewed with caution as predictors of uncertainty. These conclusions are intrinsic to the algorithms and will not change if the model complexity is increased, for example by employing a smaller viscosity, or by using a detailed NWP model.