Bayesian Inversion, Uncertainty Analysis and Interrogation using Boosting Variational Inference

Fuente: arXiv
Salvato in:
Dettagli Bibliografici
Autori principali: Zhao, Xuebin, Curtis, Andrew
Natura: Preprint
Pubblicazione: 2023
Soggetti:
Accesso online:
Tags: Aggiungi Tag
Nessun Tag, puoi essere il primo ad aggiungerne!!
_version_ 1866910283694342144
author Zhao, Xuebin
Curtis, Andrew
author_facet Zhao, Xuebin
Curtis, Andrew
contents Geoscientists use observed data to estimate properties of the Earth's interior. This often requires non-linear inverse problems to be solved and uncertainties to be estimated. Bayesian inference solves inverse problems under a probabilistic framework, in which uncertainty is represented by a so-called posterior probability distribution. Recently, variational inference has emerged as an efficient method to estimate Bayesian solutions. By seeking the closest approximation to the posterior distribution within any chosen family of distributions, variational inference yields a fully probabilistic solution. It is important to define expressive variational families so that the posterior distribution can be represented accurately. We introduce boosting variational inference (BVI) as a computationally efficient means to construct a flexible approximating family comprising all possible finite mixtures of simpler component distributions. We use Gaussian mixture components due to their fully parametric nature and the ease with which they can be optimised. We apply BVI to seismic travel time tomography and full waveform inversion, comparing its performance with other methods of solution. The results demonstrate that BVI achieves reasonable efficiency and accuracy while enabling the construction of a fully analytic expression for the posterior distribution. Samples that represent major components of uncertainty in the solution can be obtained analytically from each mixture component. We demonstrate that these samples can be used to solve an interrogation problem: to assess the size of a subsurface target structure. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first method in geophysics that provides both analytic and reasonably accurate probabilistic solutions to fully non-linear, high-dimensional Bayesian full waveform inversion problems.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2312_17646
institution arXiv
publishDate 2023
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Bayesian Inversion, Uncertainty Analysis and Interrogation using Boosting Variational Inference
Zhao, Xuebin
Curtis, Andrew
Geophysics
Geoscientists use observed data to estimate properties of the Earth's interior. This often requires non-linear inverse problems to be solved and uncertainties to be estimated. Bayesian inference solves inverse problems under a probabilistic framework, in which uncertainty is represented by a so-called posterior probability distribution. Recently, variational inference has emerged as an efficient method to estimate Bayesian solutions. By seeking the closest approximation to the posterior distribution within any chosen family of distributions, variational inference yields a fully probabilistic solution. It is important to define expressive variational families so that the posterior distribution can be represented accurately. We introduce boosting variational inference (BVI) as a computationally efficient means to construct a flexible approximating family comprising all possible finite mixtures of simpler component distributions. We use Gaussian mixture components due to their fully parametric nature and the ease with which they can be optimised. We apply BVI to seismic travel time tomography and full waveform inversion, comparing its performance with other methods of solution. The results demonstrate that BVI achieves reasonable efficiency and accuracy while enabling the construction of a fully analytic expression for the posterior distribution. Samples that represent major components of uncertainty in the solution can be obtained analytically from each mixture component. We demonstrate that these samples can be used to solve an interrogation problem: to assess the size of a subsurface target structure. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first method in geophysics that provides both analytic and reasonably accurate probabilistic solutions to fully non-linear, high-dimensional Bayesian full waveform inversion problems.
title Bayesian Inversion, Uncertainty Analysis and Interrogation using Boosting Variational Inference
topic Geophysics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2312.17646