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Seminar: Won Chang

Won Chang Seminar Series
October 17, 2019
All Day
209 W Eighteenth Ave (EA), Room 170

Title

Ice Model Calibration Using Semi-continuous Spatial Data

Speaker

Won Chang, Department of Mathematical Sciences, The University of Cincinnati

Abstract

Rapid changes in Earth's cryosphere caused by human activity can lead to significant environmental impacts. Computer models provide a useful tool for understanding the behavior and projecting the future of Arctic and Antarctic ice sheets. However, these models are typically subject to large parametric uncertainties due to poorly constrained model input parameters that govern the behavior of simulated ice sheets. Computer model calibration provides a formal statistical framework to infer parameters using observational data, and to quantify the uncertainty in projections due to the uncertainty in these parameters. Calibration of ice sheet models is often challenging because the relevant model output and observational data take the form of semi-continuous spatial data, with a point mass at zero and a right-skewed continuous distribution for positive values. Current calibration approaches cannot handle such data. Here we introduce a hierarchical latent variable model that handles binary spatial patterns and positive continuous spatial patterns as separate components. To overcome challenges due to high-dimensionality we use likelihood-based generalized principal component analysis to impose low-dimensional structures on the latent variables for spatial dependence. We apply our methodology to calibrate a physical model for the Antarctic ice sheet and demonstrate that we can overcome the aforementioned modeling and computational challenges. As a result of our calibration, we obtain improved future ice-volume change projections. 
 

Note: Seminars are free and open to the public. Reception to follow.