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Bayesian tracking of emerging epidemics using ensemble optimal statistical interpolation
Loren Cobb1, Ashok Krishnamurthy2, Jan Mandel1
1Department of Mathematical and Statistical Sciences, University of Colorado Denver, Campus Box 170, PO Box 173364, Denver, CO 80217-3364, USA.
Abstract:
We present a preliminary test of the Ensemble Optimal Statistical Interpolation (EnOSI) method for the statistical tracking of an emerging epidemic, with a comparison to its popular relative for Bayesian data assimilation, the Ensemble Kalman Filter (EnKF). The spatial data for this test was generated by a spatial susceptible-infectious-removed (S-I-R) epidemic model of an airborne infectious disease. Both tracking methods in this test employed Poisson rather than Gaussian noise, so as to handle epidemic data more accurately. The EnOSI and EnKF tracking methods worked well on the main body of the simulated spatial epidemic, but the EnOSI was able to detect and track a distant secondary focus of infection that the EnKF missed entirely.
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