Comparing adaptive prior and posterior inflation for ensemble filters using an atmospheric general circulation model

Sampling errors and model errors are major drawbacks from which ensemble Kalman filters suffer. Sampling errors arise because of the use of a limited ensemble size, while model errors are deficiencies in the dynamics and underlying parameterizations that may yield biases in the model's prediction. In this study, we propose a new time-adaptive posterior inflation algorithm in which the analyzed ensemble anomalies are locally inflated. The proposed inflation strategy is computationally efficient and is aimed at restoring enough spread in the analysis ensemble after assimilating the observations. The performance of this scheme is tested against the relaxation to prior spread (RTPS) and adaptive prior inflation. For this purpose, two model are used: the three-variable Lorenz 63 system and the Community Atmosphere Model (CAM). In CAM, global refractivity, temperature, and wind observations from several sources are incorporated to perform a set of assimilation experiments using the Data Assimilation Research Testbed (DART). The proposed scheme is shown to yield better quality forecasts than the RTPS. Assimilation results further suggest that when model errors are small, both prior and posterior inflation are able to mitigate sampling errors with a slight advantage to posterior inflation. When large model errors, such as wind and temperature biases, are present, prior inflation is shown to be more accurate than posterior inflation. Densely observed regions as in the Northern Hemisphere present numerous challenges to the posterior inflation algorithm. A compelling enhancement to the performance of the filter is achieved by combining both adaptive inflation schemes.