981 research outputs found
Variational Data Assimilation via Sparse Regularization
This paper studies the role of sparse regularization in a properly chosen
basis for variational data assimilation (VDA) problems. Specifically, it
focuses on data assimilation of noisy and down-sampled observations while the
state variable of interest exhibits sparsity in the real or transformed domain.
We show that in the presence of sparsity, the -norm regularization
produces more accurate and stable solutions than the classic data assimilation
methods. To motivate further developments of the proposed methodology,
assimilation experiments are conducted in the wavelet and spectral domain using
the linear advection-diffusion equation
Variational Downscaling, Fusion and Assimilation of Hydrometeorological States via Regularized Estimation
Improved estimation of hydrometeorological states from down-sampled
observations and background model forecasts in a noisy environment, has been a
subject of growing research in the past decades. Here, we introduce a unified
framework that ties together the problems of downscaling, data fusion and data
assimilation as ill-posed inverse problems. This framework seeks solutions
beyond the classic least squares estimation paradigms by imposing proper
regularization, which are constraints consistent with the degree of smoothness
and probabilistic structure of the underlying state. We review relevant
regularization methods in derivative space and extend classic formulations of
the aforementioned problems with particular emphasis on hydrologic and
atmospheric applications. Informed by the statistical characteristics of the
state variable of interest, the central results of the paper suggest that
proper regularization can lead to a more accurate and stable recovery of the
true state and hence more skillful forecasts. In particular, using the Tikhonov
and Huber regularization in the derivative space, the promise of the proposed
framework is demonstrated in static downscaling and fusion of synthetic
multi-sensor precipitation data, while a data assimilation numerical experiment
is presented using the heat equation in a variational setting
Simple Square Smoothing Regularization Operators
Tikhonov regularization of linear discrete ill-posed problems often is applied with a finite difference regularization operator that approximates a low-order derivative. These operators generally are represented by a banded rectangular matrix with fewer rows than columns. They therefore cannot be applied in iterative methods that are based on the Arnoldi process, which requires the regularization operator to be represented by a square matrix. This paper discusses two approaches to circumvent this difficulty: zero-padding the rectangular matrices to make them square and extending the rectangular matrix to a square circulant. We also describe how to combine these operators by weighted averaging and with orthogonal projection. Applications to Arnoldi and Lanczos bidiagonalization-based Tikhonov regularization, as well as to truncated iteration with a range-restricted minimal residual method, are presented
Blind Minimax Estimation
We consider the linear regression problem of estimating an unknown,
deterministic parameter vector based on measurements corrupted by colored
Gaussian noise. We present and analyze blind minimax estimators (BMEs), which
consist of a bounded parameter set minimax estimator, whose parameter set is
itself estimated from measurements. Thus, one does not require any prior
assumption or knowledge, and the proposed estimator can be applied to any
linear regression problem. We demonstrate analytically that the BMEs strictly
dominate the least-squares estimator, i.e., they achieve lower mean-squared
error for any value of the parameter vector. Both Stein's estimator and its
positive-part correction can be derived within the blind minimax framework.
Furthermore, our approach can be readily extended to a wider class of
estimation problems than Stein's estimator, which is defined only for white
noise and non-transformed measurements. We show through simulations that the
BMEs generally outperform previous extensions of Stein's technique.Comment: 12 pages, 7 figure
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