| | 41 | To perform ensemble data assimilation one has to create an initial ensemble which is then used in the data assimilation process. There are various different ways to generate an ensemble (like random picking of model states, breeding, short-term integrations of perturbed model fields, second-order exact sampling from EOFs). PDAF provides routines to use snapshots from a model integration to first compute EOFs (empirical orthogonal functions) and then to use the EOFs to perform a constrained random transformation to obtain ensemble perturbations to which a central state (i.e. ensemble mean) is added. This second-order exact sampling (Pham, 2001) showed good performance in our own data assimilation applications. |
