Document Type

Article

Publication Date

9-29-2009

Department

Marine Science

Abstract

A version of the reduced control space four-dimensional variational method (R4DVAR) of data assimilation into numerical models is proposed. In contrast to the conventional 4DVAR schemes, the method does not require development of the tangent linear and adjoint codes for implementation. The proposed R4DVAR technique is based on minimization of the cost function in a sequence of low-dimensional subspaces of the control space. Performance of the method is demonstrated in a series of twin-data assimilation experiments into a nonlinear quasigeostrophic model utilized as a strong constraint. When the adjoint code is stable, R4DVAR's convergence rate is comparable to that of the standard 4DVAR algorithm. In the presence of strong instabilities in the direct model, R4DVAR works better than 4DVAR whose performance is deteriorated because of the breakdown of the tangent linear approximation. Comparison of the 4DVAR and R4DVAR also shows that R4DVAR becomes advantageous when observations are sparse and noisy.

Comments

© Copyright 2009 American Meteorological Society (AMS). Permission to use figures, tables, and brief excerpts from this work in scientific and educational works is hereby granted provided that the source is acknowledged. Any use of material in this work that is determined to be “fair use” under Section 107 of the U.S. Copyright Act or that satisfies the conditions specified in Section 108 of the U.S. Copyright Act (17 USC §108) does not require the AMS’s permission. Republication, systematic reproduction, posting in electronic form, such as on a website or in a searchable database, or other uses of this material, except as exempted by the above statement, requires written permission or a license from the AMS. All AMS journals and monograph publications are registered with the Copyright Clearance Center (http://www.copyright.com). Questions about permission to use materials for which AMS holds the copyright can also be directed to the AMS Permissions Officer at permissions@ametsoc.org. Additional details are provided in the AMS Copyright Policy statement, available on the AMS website (http://www.ametsoc.org/CopyrightInformation).

Publisher Version

Publication Title

Monthly Weather Review

Volume

137

Issue

9

First Page

2966

Last Page

2978

Find in your library

Share

COinS