On the use of Empirical Orthogonal Function (EOF) analysis in the simulation of random fields

In several fields of Geophysics, such as Hydrology, Meteorology or Oceanography, it is often useful to generate random fields, displaying the same variabilitity as the observed variables. Usually, these synthetic data are used as forcing fields into numerical models, to test the sensitivity of their outputs to the variability of the inputs. Examples can be found in subsurface or surface Hydrology and in Meteorology with General Circulation Models (GCM). Different techniques have already been proposed, often based on the spectral representation of the random process, with, usually, assumptions of stationarity. This paper suggests that Empirical Orthogonal Function (EOF) analysis, which leads to the decomposition of the covariance kernel on the set of its eigen-functions, is a possible answer to this problem. The convergence and accuracy of the method are shown to depend mainly on the number of EOFs retained in the expansion of the covariance kemel. This result is confirmed by a comparison with the turning band method and a matrix technique. Furthermore, a synthetic example of non-homogencous fields shows the interest of EOF analysis in the direct simulation of such fields.