From Many to One: Consensus Inference in a MIP

Abstract A Model Intercomparison Project (MIP) consists of teams who estimate the same underlying quantity (e.g., temperature projections to the year 2070). A simple average of the ensemble of the teams' outputs gives a consensus estimate, but it does not recognize that some outputs are more va...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Noel Cressie, Michael Bertolacci, Andrew Zammit‐Mangion
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Wiley 2022-07-01
Series:Geophysical Research Letters
Subjects:
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.1029/2022GL098277
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Abstract A Model Intercomparison Project (MIP) consists of teams who estimate the same underlying quantity (e.g., temperature projections to the year 2070). A simple average of the ensemble of the teams' outputs gives a consensus estimate, but it does not recognize that some outputs are more variable than others. Statistical analysis of variance (ANOVA) models offer a way to obtain a weighted frequentist consensus estimate of outputs with a variance that is the smallest possible. Modulo dependence between MIP outputs, the ANOVA approach weights a team's output inversely proportional to its variance, from which optimally weighted estimates follow. ANOVA weights can also provide a prior distribution for Bayesian Model Averaging of the MIP outputs when external evaluation data are available. We use a MIP of carbon‐dioxide‐flux inversions to illustrate the ANOVA‐based weighting and subsequent frequentist consensus inferences.
ISSN:0094-8276
1944-8007