Multi-Model Communication and Data Assimilation for Mitigating Model Error and Improving Forecasts

Abstract

Models for weather and climate prediction are complex, and each model typically has at least a small number of phenomena that are poorly represented, such as perhaps the Madden-Julian Oscillation (MJO for short) or El Nino-Southern Oscillation (ENSO for short) or sea ice. Furthermore, it is often a very challenging task to modify and improve a complex model without creating new deficiencies. On the other hand, it is sometimes possible to design a low-dimensional model for a particular phenomenon, such as the MJO or ENSO, with significant skill, although the model may not represent the dynamics of the full weather-climate system. Here a strategy is proposed to mitigate these model errors by taking advantage of each model’s strengths. The strategy involves inter-model data assimilation, during a forecast simulation, whereby models can exchange information in order to obtain more faithful representations of the full weather-climate system. As an initial investigation, the method is examined here using a simplified scenario of linear models, involving a system of stochastic partial differential equations (SPDEs for short) as an imperfect tropical climate model and stochastic differential equations (SDEs for short) as a low-dimensional model for the MJO. It is shown that the MJO prediction skill of the imperfect climate model can be enhanced to equal the predictive skill of the low-dimensional model. Such an approach could provide a route to improving global model forecasts in a minimally invasive way, with modifications to the prediction system but without modifying the complex global physical model itself.