The Gauss-Newton algorithm is an iterative method regularly used for solving nonlinear least squares problems. It is particularly well-suited to the treatment of very large scale variational data assimilation problems that arise in atmosphere and ocean forecasting. The procedure consists of a sequence of linear least squares approximations to the nonlinear problem, each of which is solved by an 'inner' direct or iterative process. In comparison with Newton's method and its variants, the algorithm is attractive because it does not require the evaluation of second-order derivatives in the Hessian of the objective function. In practice the exact Gauss-Newton method is too expensive to apply operationally in meteorological forecasting and various approximations are made in order to reduce computational costs and to solve the problems in real time. Here we investigate the effects on the convergence of the Gauss-Newton method of two types of approximation used commonly in data assimilation. Firstly, we examine 'truncated' Gauss-Newton methods where the 'inner' linear least squares problem is not solved exactly, and secondly, we examine 'perturbed' Gauss-Newton methods where the true linearized 'inner' problem is approximated by a simplified, or perturbed, linear least squares problem. We give conditions ensuring that the truncated and perturbed Gauss-Newton methods converge and also derive rates of convergence for the iterations. The results are illustrated by a simple numerical example.

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SummaryIn variational data assimilation a least-squares objective function is minimised to obtain the most likely state of a dynamical system. This objective function combines observation and prior (or background) data weighted by their respective error statistics. In numerical weather prediction, data assimilation is used to estimate the current atmospheric state, which then serves as an initial condition for a forecast. New developments in the treatment of observation uncertainties have recently been shown to cause convergence problems for this least-squares minimisation. This is important for operational numerical weather prediction centres due to the time constraints of producing regular forecasts. The condition number of the Hessian of the objective function can be used as a proxy to investigate the speed of convergence of the least-squares minimisation. In this paper we develop novel theoretical bounds on the condition number of the Hessian. These new bounds depend on the minimum eigenvalue of the observation error covariance matrix and the ratio of background error variance to observation error variance. Numerical tests in a linear setting show that the location of observation measurements has an important effect on the condition number of the Hessian.We identify that the conditioning of the problem is related to the complex interactions between observation error covariance and background error covariance matrices. Increased understanding of the role of each constituent matrix in the conditioning of the Hessian will prove useful for informing the choice of correlated observation error covariance matrix and observation location, particularly for practical applications.

SUMMARYWe investigate the convergence of incremental four-dimensional variational data assimilation (4D-Var) when an approximation to the tangent linear model is used within the inner loop. Using a semi-implicit semi-Lagrangian model of the one-dimensional shallow water equations, we perform data assimilation experiments using an exact tangent linear model and using an inexact linear model (a perturbation forecast model). We find that the two assimilations converge at a similar rate and the analyses are also similar, with the difference between them dependent on the amount of noise in the observations. To understand the numerical results, we present the incremental 4D-Var algorithm as a Gauss-Newton iteration for solving a least-squares problem and consider its fixed points.