Numerical Solution for Nonlinear 4D Variational Data Assimilation (4D-Var) via ADMM

Abstract

The four-dimensional variational data assimilation (4D-Var) has emerged as an important methodology, widely used in numerical weather prediction, oceanographic modeling, and climate forecasting. Classical unconstrained gradient-based algorithms often struggle with local minima, making their numerical performance highly sensitive to the initial guess. In this study, we exploit the separable structure of the 4D-Var problem to propose a practical variant of the alternating direction method of multipliers (ADMM), referred to as the linearized multi-block ADMM with regularization. Unlike classical first-order optimization methods that primarily focus on initial conditions, our approach derives the Euler-Lagrange equation for the entire dynamical system, enabling more comprehensive and effective utilization of observational data. When the initial condition is poorly chosen, the arg min operation steers the iteration towards the observational data, thereby reducing sensitivity to the initial guess. The quadratic subproblems further simplify the solution process, while the parallel structure enhances computational efficiency, especially when utilizing modern hardware. To validate our approach, we demonstrate its superior performance using the Lorenz system, even in the presence of noisy observational data. Furthermore, we showcase the effectiveness of the linearized multi-block ADMM with regularization in solving the 4D-Var problems for the viscous Burgers' equation, across various numerical schemes, including finite difference, finite element, and spectral methods. Finally, we illustrate the recovery of dynamics under noisy observational data in a 2D turbulence scenario, particularly focusing on vorticity concentration, highlighting the robustness of our algorithm in handling complex physical phenomena.