Cross-covariances and localization for EnKF in multiphase flow data assimilation

The ensemble Kalman filter has been successfully applied for data assimilation in very large models, including those in reservoir simulation and weather. Two problems become critical in a standard implementation of the ensemble Kalman filter, however, when the ensemble size is small. The first is that the ensemble approximation to cross-covariances of model and state variables to data can indicate the presence of correlations that are not real. These spurious correlations give rise to model or state variable updates in regions that should not be updated. The second problem is that the number of degrees of freedom in the ensemble is only as large as the size of the ensemble, so the assimilation of large amounts of precise, independent data is impossible. Localization of the Kalman gain is almost universal in the weather community, but applications of localization for the ensemble Kalman filter in porous media flow have been somewhat rare. It has been shown, however, that localization of updates to regions of non-zero sensitivity or regions of non-zero cross-covariance improves the performance of the EnKF when the ensemble size is small. Localization is necessary for assimilation of large amounts of independent data. The problem is to define appropriate localization functions for different types of data and different types of variables. We show that the knowledge of sensitivity alone is not sufficient for determination of the region of localization. The region depends also on the prior covariance for model variables and on the past history of data assimilation. Although the goal is to choose localization functions that are large enough to include the true region of non-zero cross-covariance, for EnKF applications, the choice of localization function needs to balance the harm done by spurious covariance resulting from small ensembles and the harm done by excluding real correlations. In this paper, we focus on the distance-based localization and provide insights for choosing suitable localization functions for data assimilation in multiphase flow problems. In practice, we conclude that it is reasonable to choose localization functions based on well patterns, that localization function should be larger than regions of non-zero sensitivity and should extend beyond a single well pattern.     

集合卡尔曼滤波估计水文地质参数的局域化修正

集合卡尔曼滤波(Ensemble Kalman Filter,EnKF)作为一种有效的数据同化方法,在众多数值实验中体现优势的同时,也暴露了它使用小集合估计协方差情况下精度较低的缺陷。为了降低取样噪声对协方差估计的干扰并提高滤波精度,应用局域化函数对小集合估计的协方差进行修正,即在协方差矩阵中以舒尔积的形式增加空间距离权重以限制远距离相关。在一个二维理想孔隙承压含水层模型中的运行结果表明,局域化对集合卡尔曼滤波估计地下水参数的修正十分有效,局域化可以很好地过滤小集合估计中噪声的影响,节省计算量的同时又可以防止滤波发散。相关长度较小的水文地质参数(如对数渗透系数)更容易受到噪声的干扰,更有必要进行局域化修正。     

Closed-loop reservoir management on the Brugge test case

This paper proposes an augmented Lagrangian method for production optimization in which the cost function to be maximized is defined as an augmented Lagrangian function consisting of the net present value (NPV) and all the equality and inequality constraints except the bound constraints. The bound constraints are dealt with using a trust-region gradient projection method. The paper also presents a way to eliminate the need to convert the inequality constraints to equality constraints with slack variables in the augmented Lagrangian function, which greatly reduces the size of the optimization problem when the number of inequality constraints is large. The proposed method is tested in the context of closed-loop reservoir management benchmark problem based on the Brugge reservoir setup by TNO. In the test, we used the ensemble Kalman filter (EnKF) with covariance localization for data assimilation. Production optimization is done on the updated ensemble mean model from EnKF. The production optimization resulted in a substantial increase in the NPV for the expected reservoir life compared to the base case with reactive control.     

The temperature-based localization for the application of EnKF on automatic history matching of the SAGD process

The ensemble Kalman filter (EnKF) has been successfully applied to data assimilation in steam-assisted gravity drainage (SAGD) process, but applications of localization for the EnKF in the SAGD process have not been studied. Distance-based localization has been reported to be very efficient for assimilation of large amounts of independent data with a small ensemble in water flooding process, but it is not applicable to the SAGD process, since in the SAGD process, oil is produced mainly from the transition zone steam chamber to cold oil instead of the regions around the producer. As the oil production rate is mainly affected by the temperature distribution in the transition zone, temperature-based localization was proposed for automatic history matching of the SAGD process. The regions of the localization function were determined through sensitivity analysis by using a large ensemble with 1000 members. The sensitivity analysis indicated that the regions of cross-correlations between oil production and state variables are much wider than the correlations between production data and model variables. To choose localization regions that are large enough to include the true regions of non-zero cross-covariance, the localization function is defined based on the regions of non-zero covariances of production data to state variables. The non-zero covariances between production data and state variables are distributed in accordance with the steam chamber. This makes the definition of a universal localization function for different state variables easier. Based on the cross-correlation analysis, the temperature range in which oil production is contributed is determined, and beyond or below this range, the localization function reduces from one, and at the critical temperature or steam temperature, the localization function reduces to zero. The temperature-based localization function was obtained through modifying the distance-based localization function. Localization is applied to covariance of data with permeability, saturation, and temperature, as well as the covariance of data with data. A small ensemble (10 ensemble members) was employed in several case studies. Without localization, the variability in the ensemble collapsed very quickly and lost the ability to assimilate later data. The mean variance of model variables dropped dramatically by 95 %, and there was almost no variability in ensemble forecasts, while the prediction was far from the reference with data mismatch keeping up at a high level. At least 50 ensemble members are needed to keep the qualities of matches and forecasts, which significantly increases the computation time. The EnKF with temperature-based localization is able to avoid the collapse of ensemble variability with a small ensemble (10 members), which saves the computation time and gives better history match and prediction results.     

Combining sensitivities and prior information for covariance localization in the ensemble Kalman filter for petroleum reservoir applications

Sampling errors can severely degrade the reliability of estimates of conditional means and uncertainty quantification obtained by the application of the ensemble Kalman filter (EnKF) for data assimilation. A standard recommendation for reducing the spurious correlations and loss of variance due to sampling errors is to use covariance localization. In distance-based localization, the prior (forecast) covariance matrix at each data assimilation step is replaced with the Schur product of a correlation matrix with compact support and the forecast covariance matrix. The most important decision to be made in this localization procedure is the choice of the critical length(s) used to generate this correlation matrix. Here, we give a simple argument that the appropriate choice of critical length(s) should be based both on the underlying principal correlation length(s) of the geological model and the range of the sensitivity matrices. Based on this result, we implement a procedure for covariance localization and demonstrate with a set of distinctive reservoir history-matching examples that this procedure yields improved results over the standard EnKF implementation and over covariance localization with other choices of critical length.     

Multiscale ensemble filtering for reservoir engineering applications

Reservoir management requires periodic updates of the simulation models using the production data available over time. Traditionally, validation of reservoir models with production data is done using a history matching process. Uncertainties in the data, as well as in the model, lead to a nonunique history matching inverse problem. It has been shown that the ensemble Kalman filter (EnKF) is an adequate method for predicting the dynamics of the reservoir. The EnKF is a sequential Monte-Carlo approach that uses an ensemble of reservoir models. For realistic, large-scale applications, the ensemble size needs to be kept small due to computational inefficiency. Consequently, the error space is not well covered (poor cross-correlation matrix approximations) and the updated parameter field becomes scattered and loses important geological features (for example, the contact between high- and low-permeability values). The prior geological knowledge present in the initial time is not found anymore in the final updated parameter. We propose a new approach to overcome some of the EnKF limitations. This paper shows the specifications and results of the ensemble multiscale filter (EnMSF) for automatic history matching. EnMSF replaces, at each update time, the prior sample covariance with a multiscale tree. The global dependence is preserved via the parent–child relation in the tree (nodes at the adjacent scales). After constructing the tree, the Kalman update is performed. The properties of the EnMSF are presented here with a 2D, two-phase (oil and water) small twin experiment, and the results are compared to the EnKF. The advantages of using EnMSF are localization in space and scale, adaptability to prior information, and efficiency in case many measurements are available. These advantages make the EnMSF a practical tool for many data assimilation problems.     

An efficient matrix-free algorithm for the ensemble Kalman filter

In this work, we present an efficient matrix-free ensemble Kalman filter (EnKF) algorithm for the assimilation of large data sets. The EnKF has increasingly become an essential tool for data assimilation of numerical models. It is an attractive assimilation method because it can evolve the model covariance matrix for a non-linear model, through the use of an ensemble of model states, and it is easy to implement for any numerical model. Nevertheless, the computational cost of the EnKF can increase significantly for cases involving the assimilation of large data sets. As more data become available for assimilation, a potential bottleneck in most EnKF algorithms involves the operation of the Kalman gain matrix. To reduce the complexity and cost of assimilating large data sets, a matrix-free EnKF algorithm is proposed. The algorithm uses an efficient matrix-free linear solver, based on the Sherman–Morrison formulas, to solve the implicit linear system within the Kalman gain matrix and compute the analysis. Numerical experiments with a two-dimensional shallow water model on the sphere are presented, where results show the matrix-free implementation outperforming an singular value decomposition-based implementation in computational time.     

基于集合卡尔曼滤波的多相流模型参数估计——以室内二维砂箱中重质非水相污染物入渗为例

重质非水相有机污染物(DNAPL)泄漏到地下后,其运移与分布特征受渗透率非均质性影响显著。为刻画DNAPL污染源区结构特征,需进行参数估计以描述水文地质参数的非均质性。本研究构建了基于集合卡尔曼滤波方法(EnKF)与多相流运移模型的同化方案,通过融合DNAPL饱和度观测数据推估非均质介质渗透率空间分布。通过二维砂箱实际与理想算例,验证了同化方法的推估效果,并探讨了不同因素对同化的影响。研究结果表明:基于EnKF方法同化饱和度观测资料可有效地推估非均质渗透率场;参数推估精度随观测时空密度的增大而提高;观测点位置分布对同化效果有所影响,布置在污染集中区域的观测数据对于参数估计具有较高的数据价值。     

Multimodal ensemble Kalman filtering using Gaussian mixture models

In this paper we present an extension of the ensemble Kalman filter (EnKF) specifically designed for multimodal systems. EnKF data assimilation scheme is less accurate when it is used to approximate systems with multimodal distribution such as reservoir facies models. The algorithm is based on the assumption that both prior and posterior distribution can be approximated by Gaussian mixture and it is validated by the introduction of the concept of finite ensemble representation. The effectiveness of the approach is shown with two applications. The first example is based on Lorenz model. In the second example, the proposed methodology combined with a localization technique is used to update a 2D reservoir facies models. Both applications give evidence of an improved performance of the proposed method respect to the EnKF.     

Application of the EnKF and Localization to Automatic History Matching of Facies Distribution and Production Data

The performance of the ensemble Kalman filter (EnKF) for continuous updating of facies location and boundaries in a reservoir model based on production and facies data for a 3D synthetic problem is presented. The occurrence of the different facies types is treated as a random process and the initial distribution was obtained by truncating a bi-Gaussian random field. Because facies data are highly non-Gaussian, re-parameterization was necessary in order to use the EnKF algorithm for data assimilation; two Gaussian random fields are updated in lieu of the static facies parameters. The problem of history matching applied to facies is difficult due to (1) constraints to facies observations at wells are occasionally violated when productions data are assimilated; (2) excessive reduction of variance seems to be a bigger problem with facies than with Gaussian random permeability and porosity fields; and (3) the relationship between facies variables and data is so highly non-linear that the final facies field does not always honor early production data well. Consequently three issues are investigated in this work. Is it possible to iteratively enforce facies constraints when updates due to production data have caused them to be violated? Can localization of adjustments be used for facies to prevent collapse of the variance during the data-assimilation period? Is a forecast from the final state better than a forecast from time zero using the final parameter fields?To investigate these issues, a 3D reservoir simulation model is coupled with the EnKF technique for data assimilation. One approach to enforcing the facies constraint is continuous iteration on all available data, which may lead to inconsistent model states, incorrect weighting of the production data and incorrect adjustment of the state vector. A sequential EnKF where the dynamic and static data are assimilated sequentially is presented and this approach seems to have solved the highlighted problems above. When the ensemble size is small compared to the number of independent data, the localized adjustment of the state vector is a very important technique that may be used to mitigate loss of rank in the ensemble. Implementing a distance-based localization of the facies adjustment appears to mitigate the problem of variance deficiency in the ensembles by ensuring that sufficient variability in the ensemble is maintained throughout the data assimilation period. Finally, when data are assimilated without localization, the prediction results appear to be independent of the starting point. When localization is applied, it is better to predict from the start using the final parameter field rather than continue from the final state.     

Fast linearized forecasts for subsurface flow data assimilation with ensemble Kalman filter

Ensemble methods present a practical framework for parameter estimation, performance prediction, and uncertainty quantification in subsurface flow and transport modeling. In particular, the ensemble Kalman filter (EnKF) has received significant attention for its promising performance in calibrating heterogeneous subsurface flow models. Since an ensemble of model realizations is used to compute the statistical moments needed to perform the EnKF updates, large ensemble sizes are needed to provide accurate updates and uncertainty assessment. However, for realistic problems that involve large-scale models with computationally demanding flow simulation runs, the EnKF implementation is limited to small-sized ensembles. As a result, spurious numerical correlations can develop and lead to inaccurate EnKF updates, which tend to underestimate or even eliminate the ensemble spread. Ad hoc practical remedies, such as localization, local analysis, and covariance inflation schemes, have been developed and applied to reduce the effect of sampling errors due to small ensemble sizes. In this paper, a fast linear approximate forecast method is proposed as an alternative approach to enable the use of large ensemble sizes in operational settings to obtain more improved sample statistics and EnKF updates. The proposed method first clusters a large number of initial geologic model realizations into a small number of groups. A representative member from each group is used to run a full forward flow simulation. The flow predictions for the remaining realizations in each group are approximated by a linearization around the full simulation results of the representative model (centroid) of the respective cluster. The linearization can be performed using either adjoint-based or ensemble-based gradients. Results from several numerical experiments with two-phase and three-phase flow systems in this paper suggest that the proposed method can be applied to improve the EnKF performance in large-scale problems where the number of full simulation is constrained.     

Sampling error distribution for the ensemble Kalman filter update step

In recent years, data assimilation techniques have been applied to an increasingly wider specter of problems. Monte Carlo variants of the Kalman filter, in particular, the ensemble Kalman filter (EnKF), have gained significant popularity. EnKF is used for a wide variety of applications, among them for updating reservoir simulation models. EnKF is a Monte Carlo method, and its reliability depends on the actual size of the sample. In applications, a moderately sized sample (40–100 members) is used for computational convenience. Problems due to the resulting Monte Carlo effects require a more thorough analysis of the EnKF. Earlier we presented a method for the assessment of the error emerging at the EnKF update step (Kovalenko et al., SIAM J Matrix Anal Appl, in press). A particular energy norm of the EnKF error after a single update step was studied. The energy norm used to assess the error is hard to interpret. In this paper, we derive the distribution of the Euclidean norm of the sampling error under the same assumptions as before, namely normality of the forecast distribution and negligibility of the observation error. The distribution depends on the ensemble size, the number and spatial arrangement of the observations, and the prior covariance. The distribution is used to study the error propagation in a single update step on several synthetic examples. The examples illustrate the changes in reliability of the EnKF, when the parameters governing the error distribution vary.     

评估集合卡曼滤波反演土壤湿度廓线的性能

集合卡曼滤波由于易于使用而被广泛地应用到陆面数据同化研究中,它是建立在模型为线性、误差为正态分布的假设上,而实际土壤湿度方程是高度非线性的,并且当土壤过干或过湿时会发生样本偏斜.为了全面评估它在同化表层土壤湿度观测来反演土壤湿度廓线的性能,特引入不需要上述假设的采样重要性重采样粒子滤波,比较非线性和偏斜性对同化算法的影响.结果显示:不管是小样本还是大样本,集合卡曼滤波都能快速、准确地逼近样本均值,而粒子滤波只有在大样本时才能缓慢地趋近;此外,集合卡曼滤波的粒子边缘概率密度及其偏度和峰度与粒子滤波完全不同,前者粒子虽不完全满足正态分布,但始终为单峰状态,而后者粒子随同化推进经历了单峰到双峰再到单峰的变化.     

不同滤波算法在土壤湿度同化中的应用

为研究不同滤波算法在土壤湿度同化中的有效性,以及土壤湿度模拟结果对模型参数的敏感性,结合简单生物圈模型SiB2,设置敏感性实验,探求土壤饱和水力传导度对土壤湿度模拟结果的影响;并在此基础上,采用集合卡尔曼滤波（EnKF）、无迹卡尔曼滤波（UKF）和无迹粒子滤波（UPF）开展土壤湿度实时同化实验。结果表明：土壤饱和水力传导度能显著影响土壤湿度模拟精度;利用EnKF、UKF、UPF同化站点观测数据,均能改善土壤湿度模拟结果;3种同化方法在不同土壤层的同化效果不同,在土壤表层,EnKF的有效性优于UKF和UPF,在根域层和土壤深层,3种滤波方法有效性在降雨前后相差较大。因此,针对性地选择同化方法,是提高土壤湿度模拟精度的有效手段。     

Ensemble filter methods with perturbed observations applied to nonlinear problems

The ensemble Kalman filter (EnKF) has been shown repeatedly to be an effective method for data assimilation in large-scale problems, including those in petroleum engineering. Data assimilation for multiphase flow in porous media is particularly difficult, however, because the relationships between model variables (e.g., permeability and porosity) and observations (e.g., water cut and gas–oil ratio) are highly nonlinear. Because of the linear approximation in the update step and the use of a limited number of realizations in an ensemble, the EnKF has a tendency to systematically underestimate the variance of the model variables. Various approaches have been suggested to reduce the magnitude of this problem, including the application of ensemble filter methods that do not require perturbations to the observed data. On the other hand, iterative least-squares data assimilation methods with perturbations of the observations have been shown to be fairly robust to nonlinearity in the data relationship. In this paper, we present EnKF with perturbed observations as a square root filter in an enlarged state space. By imposing second-order-exact sampling of the observation errors and independence constraints to eliminate the cross-covariance with predicted observation perturbations, we show that it is possible in linear problems to obtain results from EnKF with observation perturbations that are equivalent to ensemble square-root filter results. Results from a standard EnKF, EnKF with second-order-exact sampling of measurement errors that satisfy independence constraints (EnKF (SIC)), and an ensemble square-root filter (ETKF) are compared on various test problems with varying degrees of nonlinearity and dimensions. The first test problem is a simple one-variable quadratic model in which the nonlinearity of the observation operator is varied over a wide range by adjusting the magnitude of the coefficient of the quadratic term. The second problem has increased observation and model dimensions to test the EnKF (SIC) algorithm. The third test problem is a two-dimensional, two-phase reservoir flow problem in which permeability and porosity of every grid cell (5,000 model parameters) are unknown. The EnKF (SIC) and the mean-preserving ETKF (SRF) give similar results when applied to linear problems, and both are better than the standard EnKF. Although the ensemble methods are expected to handle the forecast step well in nonlinear problems, the estimates of the mean and the variance from the analysis step for all variants of ensemble filters are also surprisingly good, with little difference between ensemble methods when applied to nonlinear problems.     

A parallel ensemble-based framework for reservoir history matching and uncertainty characterization

We present a parallel framework for history matching and uncertainty characterization based on the Kalman filter update equation for the application of reservoir simulation. The main advantages of ensemble-based data assimilation methods are that they can handle large-scale numerical models with a high degree of nonlinearity and large amount of data, making them perfectly suited for coupling with a reservoir simulator. However, the sequential implementation is computationally expensive as the methods require relatively high number of reservoir simulation runs. Therefore, the main focus of this work is to develop a parallel data assimilation framework with minimum changes into the reservoir simulator source code. In this framework, multiple concurrent realizations are computed on several partitions of a parallel machine. These realizations are further subdivided among different processors, and communication is performed at data assimilation times. Although this parallel framework is general and can be used for different ensemble techniques, we discuss the methodology and compare results of two algorithms, the ensemble Kalman filter (EnKF) and the ensemble smoother (ES). Computational results show that the absolute runtime is greatly reduced using a parallel implementation versus a serial one. In particular, a parallel efficiency of about 35 % is obtained for the EnKF, and an efficiency of more than 50 % is obtained for the ES.     

土壤水分同化系统的敏感性试验研究

利用1998年7月6日至8月9日青藏高原GAME-Tibet试验区MS3608站点的4cm、20cm和100cm的土壤水分观测数据同化SiB2模型输出的表层、根区和深层土壤水分,探讨了一个基于集合卡尔曼滤波和简单生物圈模型的单点土壤水分同化方案。分析和评价了集合大小、同化周期、模型误差、背景场误差以及观测误差对同化系统性能的影响。结果表明:①增加集合数目可以减小土壤水分同化系统的误差,但同时又降低了运行效率;②对于集合卡尔曼滤波,初始场的估计是否准确对同化系统性能影响不大;③模型误差和观测误差的准确估计可以提高土壤水分的估计精度;④利用数据同化的方法对土壤水分的估计有显著提高。     

A probabilistic parametrization for geological uncertainty estimation using the ensemble Kalman filter (EnKF)

In the past years, many applications of history-matching methods in general and ensemble Kalman filter in particular have been proposed, especially in order to estimate fields that provide uncertainty in the stochastic process defined by the dynamical system of hydrocarbon recovery. Such fields can be permeability fields or porosity fields, but can also fields defined by the rock type (facies fields). The estimation of the boundaries of the geologic facies with ensemble Kalman filter (EnKF) was made, in different papers, with the aid of Gaussian random fields, which were truncated using various schemes and introduced in a history-matching process. In this paper, we estimate, in the frame of the EnKF process, the locations of three facies types that occur into a reservoir domain, with the property that each two could have a contact. The geological simulation model is a form of the general truncated plurigaussian method. The difference with other approaches consists in how the truncation scheme is introduced and in the observation operator of the facies types at the well locations. The projection from the continuous space of the Gaussian fields into the discrete space of the facies fields is realized through in an intermediary space (space with probabilities). This space connects the observation operator of the facies types at the well locations with the geological simulation model. We will test the model using a 2D reservoir which is connected with the EnKF method as a data assimilation technique. We will use different geostatistical properties for the Gaussian fields and different levels of the uncertainty introduced in the model parameters and also in the construction of the Gaussian fields.     

非线性滤波方法与陆面数据同化

陆面数据同化研究近几年成为地球科学研究的新兴领域,其中以非线性滤波为代表的数据同化方法发展迅速并得到了广泛应用。在贝叶斯理论框架内,从递推贝叶斯估计理论的角度系统地分析了扩展卡尔曼滤波、无迹卡尔曼滤波、集合卡尔曼滤波、SIR粒子滤波等非线性滤波方法的异同;针对应用比较广泛的集合卡尔曼滤波和SIR粒子滤波应用中存在的问题,论述了几种提高滤波性能的实用方法,如协方差矩阵的Localization方法、协方差矩阵的Inflation方法、双集合卡尔曼滤波方法、扰动集合、扰动大气驱动和模型参数、平方根集合卡尔曼滤波以及粒子滤波算法的改进等。最后总结讨论了各种非线性滤波方法应用中的特点、难点以及各种算法在陆面数据同化中的应用前景和发展方向。