A rapid optimization algorithm for GPS data assimilation

Global Positioning System (GPS) meteorology data variational assimilation can be reduced to the problem of a large-scale unconstrained optimization. Because the dimension of this problem is too large, most optimal algorithms cannot be performed. In order to make GPS/MET data assimilation able to satisfy the demand of numerical weather prediction, finding an algorithm with a great convergence rate of iteration will be the most important thing. A new method is presented that dynamically combines the limited memory BFGS (L-BFGS) method with the Hessian-free Newton(HFN) method, and it has a good rate of convergence in iteration. The numerical tests indicate that the computational efficiency of the method is better than the L-BFGS and HFN methods.