Formulations for Estimating Spatial Variations of Analysis Error Variance to Improve Multiscale and Multistep Variational Data Assimilation

When the coarse-resolution observations used in the first step of multiscale and multistep variational data assimilation become increasingly nonuniform and/or sparse, the error variance of the first-step analysis tends to have increasingly large spatial variations. However, the analysis error varian...

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Main Authors: Qin Xu, Li Wei
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Wiley 2018-01-01
Series:Advances in Meteorology
Online Access:http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2018/7931964
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author Qin Xu
Li Wei
author_facet Qin Xu
Li Wei
author_sort Qin Xu
collection DOAJ
description When the coarse-resolution observations used in the first step of multiscale and multistep variational data assimilation become increasingly nonuniform and/or sparse, the error variance of the first-step analysis tends to have increasingly large spatial variations. However, the analysis error variance computed from the previously developed spectral formulations is constant and thus limited to represent only the spatially averaged error variance. To overcome this limitation, analytic formulations are constructed to efficiently estimate the spatial variation of analysis error variance and associated spatial variation in analysis error covariance. First, a suite of formulations is constructed to efficiently estimate the error variance reduction produced by analyzing the coarse-resolution observations in one- and two-dimensional spaces with increased complexity and generality (from uniformly distributed observations with periodic extension to nonuniformly distributed observations without periodic extension). Then, three different formulations are constructed for using the estimated analysis error variance to modify the analysis error covariance computed from the spectral formulations. The successively improved accuracies of these three formulations and their increasingly positive impacts on the two-step variational analysis (or multistep variational analysis in first two steps) are demonstrated by idealized experiments.
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spelling doaj-art-c2665786efd042a4893a9ed1cd9939e92025-02-03T05:46:21ZengWileyAdvances in Meteorology1687-93091687-93172018-01-01201810.1155/2018/79319647931964Formulations for Estimating Spatial Variations of Analysis Error Variance to Improve Multiscale and Multistep Variational Data AssimilationQin Xu0Li Wei1NOAA/National Severe Storms Laboratory, Norman, OK, USACooperative Institute for Mesoscale Meteorological Studies, University of Oklahoma, Norman, OK, USAWhen the coarse-resolution observations used in the first step of multiscale and multistep variational data assimilation become increasingly nonuniform and/or sparse, the error variance of the first-step analysis tends to have increasingly large spatial variations. However, the analysis error variance computed from the previously developed spectral formulations is constant and thus limited to represent only the spatially averaged error variance. To overcome this limitation, analytic formulations are constructed to efficiently estimate the spatial variation of analysis error variance and associated spatial variation in analysis error covariance. First, a suite of formulations is constructed to efficiently estimate the error variance reduction produced by analyzing the coarse-resolution observations in one- and two-dimensional spaces with increased complexity and generality (from uniformly distributed observations with periodic extension to nonuniformly distributed observations without periodic extension). Then, three different formulations are constructed for using the estimated analysis error variance to modify the analysis error covariance computed from the spectral formulations. The successively improved accuracies of these three formulations and their increasingly positive impacts on the two-step variational analysis (or multistep variational analysis in first two steps) are demonstrated by idealized experiments.http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2018/7931964
spellingShingle Qin Xu
Li Wei
Formulations for Estimating Spatial Variations of Analysis Error Variance to Improve Multiscale and Multistep Variational Data Assimilation
Advances in Meteorology
title Formulations for Estimating Spatial Variations of Analysis Error Variance to Improve Multiscale and Multistep Variational Data Assimilation
title_full Formulations for Estimating Spatial Variations of Analysis Error Variance to Improve Multiscale and Multistep Variational Data Assimilation
title_fullStr Formulations for Estimating Spatial Variations of Analysis Error Variance to Improve Multiscale and Multistep Variational Data Assimilation
title_full_unstemmed Formulations for Estimating Spatial Variations of Analysis Error Variance to Improve Multiscale and Multistep Variational Data Assimilation
title_short Formulations for Estimating Spatial Variations of Analysis Error Variance to Improve Multiscale and Multistep Variational Data Assimilation
title_sort formulations for estimating spatial variations of analysis error variance to improve multiscale and multistep variational data assimilation
url http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2018/7931964
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AT liwei formulationsforestimatingspatialvariationsofanalysiserrorvariancetoimprovemultiscaleandmultistepvariationaldataassimilation