Evolving beyond collapse: An adaptive particle batch smoother for cryospheric data assimilation

Fuente: arXiv
Enregistré dans:
Détails bibliographiques
Auteurs principaux: Aalstad, Kristoffer, Alonso-González, Esteban, Pirk, Norbert, Westermann, Sebastian, Willmes, Clarissa, Yang, Ruitang
Format: Preprint
Publié: 2026
Sujets:
Accès en ligne:
Tags: Ajouter un tag
Pas de tags, Soyez le premier à ajouter un tag!
_version_ 1866908793177112576
author Aalstad, Kristoffer
Alonso-González, Esteban
Pirk, Norbert
Westermann, Sebastian
Willmes, Clarissa
Yang, Ruitang
author_facet Aalstad, Kristoffer
Alonso-González, Esteban
Pirk, Norbert
Westermann, Sebastian
Willmes, Clarissa
Yang, Ruitang
contents We present a new adaptive particle-based data assimilation scheme for cryospheric applications that leverages promising developments in importance sampling. The proposed approach seeks to combine some of the advantages of two widely used classes of schemes: particle methods and iterative ensemble Kalman methods. Specifically, it extends the PBS that is commonly used in cryospheric data assimilation, with the AMIS algorithm. This adaptive formulation transforms the PBS into an iterative scheme with improved resilience against ensemble collapse and the ability to implement early-stopping strategies. As such, computational cost is automatically adapted to the complexity of the problem at hand, even down to the grid-cell and water year level in distributed multiyear simulations. In homage to the schemes that it builds on, we coin this new algorithm the Adaptive Particle Batch Smoother (AdaPBS) and we test it across a range of scenarios. First, we conducted an intercomparison of some of the most commonly used cryospheric data assimilation algorithms using MCMC simulation as a costly gold-standard benchmark in a simplified temperature index model assimilating snow depth observations. We further evaluated AdaPBS by assimilating snow depth observations from the ESMSnowMIP project at 6 different sites spanning 3 continents, using an ensemble of simulations generated with the more complex FSM2. Our results demonstrate that AdaPBS is a robust and reliable tool, outperforming or at least matching the performance of other commonly used algorithms and successfully handling complex cases with dense observational datasets. All experiments were carried out using the open-source MuSA toolbox, which now includes AdaPBS and MCMC among the growing list of available cryospheric data assimilation methods.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2601_20049
institution arXiv
publishDate 2026
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Evolving beyond collapse: An adaptive particle batch smoother for cryospheric data assimilation
Aalstad, Kristoffer
Alonso-González, Esteban
Pirk, Norbert
Westermann, Sebastian
Willmes, Clarissa
Yang, Ruitang
Geophysics
Atmospheric and Oceanic Physics
Data Analysis, Statistics and Probability
We present a new adaptive particle-based data assimilation scheme for cryospheric applications that leverages promising developments in importance sampling. The proposed approach seeks to combine some of the advantages of two widely used classes of schemes: particle methods and iterative ensemble Kalman methods. Specifically, it extends the PBS that is commonly used in cryospheric data assimilation, with the AMIS algorithm. This adaptive formulation transforms the PBS into an iterative scheme with improved resilience against ensemble collapse and the ability to implement early-stopping strategies. As such, computational cost is automatically adapted to the complexity of the problem at hand, even down to the grid-cell and water year level in distributed multiyear simulations. In homage to the schemes that it builds on, we coin this new algorithm the Adaptive Particle Batch Smoother (AdaPBS) and we test it across a range of scenarios. First, we conducted an intercomparison of some of the most commonly used cryospheric data assimilation algorithms using MCMC simulation as a costly gold-standard benchmark in a simplified temperature index model assimilating snow depth observations. We further evaluated AdaPBS by assimilating snow depth observations from the ESMSnowMIP project at 6 different sites spanning 3 continents, using an ensemble of simulations generated with the more complex FSM2. Our results demonstrate that AdaPBS is a robust and reliable tool, outperforming or at least matching the performance of other commonly used algorithms and successfully handling complex cases with dense observational datasets. All experiments were carried out using the open-source MuSA toolbox, which now includes AdaPBS and MCMC among the growing list of available cryospheric data assimilation methods.
title Evolving beyond collapse: An adaptive particle batch smoother for cryospheric data assimilation
topic Geophysics
Atmospheric and Oceanic Physics
Data Analysis, Statistics and Probability
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2601.20049