An Explicit Probabilistic Derivation of Inflation in a Scalar Ensemble Kalman Filter for Finite Step, Finite Ensemble Convergence

Abstract: This paper uses a probabilistic approach to analyze the converge of an ensemble Kalman filter solution to an exact Kalman filter solution in the simplest possible setting, the scalar case, as it allows us to build upon a rich literature of scalar probability distributions and non-elementary functions. To this end we introduce the bare-bones Scalar Pedagogical Ensemble Kalman Filter (SPEnKF). We show that in the asymptotic case of ensemble size, the expected value of both the analysis mean and variance estimate of the SPEnKF converges to that of the true Kalman filter, and that the variances of both tend towards zero, at each time moment. We also show that the ensemble converges in probability in the complementary case, when the ensemble is finite, and time is taken to infinity. Moreover, we show that in the finite-ensemble, finite-time case, variance inflation and mean correction can be leveraged to coerce the SPEnKF converge to its scalar Kalman filter counterpart. We then apply this framework to analyze perturbed observations and explain why perturbed observations ensemble Kalman filters underperform their deterministic counterparts.