An Introduction to Ensemble Kalman Filtering

Forecasters are beginning to have access to an increasing number of products generated with ensemble filter data assimilation. The first half of this tutorial provides a simple but comprehensive introduction to ensemble filtering that explores the strengths and weaknesses of resulting forecast products. The second half discusses the use of ensemble methods for forecast model diagnosis and improvement. An afterword will give a brief overview of several new developments in ensemble filtering that may lead to improved ensemble forecasts.