Ensemble Kalman Filter - Introduction

Introduction

The Ensemble Kalman Filter (EnKF) is a Monte Carlo implementation of the Bayesian update problem: given a probability density function (pdf) of the state of the modeled system (the prior, called often the forecast in geosciences) and the data likelihood, the Bayes theorem is used to obtain the pdf after the data likelihood has been taken into account (the posterior, often called the analysis). This is called a Bayesian update. The Bayesian update is combined with advancing the model in time, incorporating new data from time to time. The original Kalman Filter assumes that all pdfs are Gaussian (the Gaussian assumption) and provides algebraic formulas for the change of the mean and the covariance matrix by the Bayesian update, as well as a formula for advancing the covariance matrix in time provided the system is linear. However, maintaining the covariance matrix is not feasible computationally for high-dimensional systems. For this reason, EnKFs were developed. EnKFs represent the distribution of the system state using a collection of state vectors, called an ensemble, and replace the covariance matrix by the sample covariance computed from the ensemble. The ensemble is operated with as if it were a random sample, but the ensemble members are really not independent - the EnKF ties them together. One advantage of EnKFs is that advancing the pdf in time is achieved by simply advancing each member of the ensemble. For a survey of EnKF and related data assimilation techniques, see.