Learning Discriminators for Resampling in the Ensemble Gaussian Mixture Filter through a Normalizing Flow Approach

arXiv cs.LG / 5/5/2026

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Key Points

  • The paper targets a key weakness of the ensemble Gaussian mixture filter (EnGMF): its resampling can yield physically implausible posterior particles that then degrade forecasts.
  • It proposes a discriminator-informed resampling method that uses a learned discriminator to accept or reject candidate particles based on physical plausibility.
  • The discriminators are trained using a normalizing flow approach, integrating distribution modeling with physical plausibility checks.
  • Experiments on the Ikeda map and the Lorenz ’63 system show that the method consistently lowers prediction error versus the standard EnGMF, especially in low-ensemble regimes.

Abstract

The ensemble Gaussian mixture filter (EnGMF) is a powerful, convergent particle filter capable of medium-to-high dimensional non-linear filtering. The EnGMF relies on a resampling step that can generate physically unrealistic posterior samples, that would subsequently produce physically meaningless forecasts. This work introduces the discriminator-informed resampling procedure, that augments the posterior resampling step with a discriminator that accepts or rejects candidate particles based on their physical plausibility. In this work these discriminators are learned through a normalizing flow approach. Numerical experiments on both the Ikeda map and the Lorenz '63 system show that discriminator informed resampling procedure consistently reduces error relative to the standard EnGMF in low-ensemble regimes.