Efficient sensitivity analysis for flow and transport in the earth's crust and mantle

Abstract

This paper focuses on the role of sensitivity analysis in studies of water transport in the environmental and geophysical sciences. Sensitivity analysis is useful in model development to determine how changes in parameter input will affect a model's response. It is also used in data assimilation to incorporate observations into a model. The adjoint method allows an efficient calculation of a model's sensitivity when the number of parameters exceeds the number of observations. In this paper we present studies demonstrating the use of the adjoint method for modelling water transport in both the Earth's crust and mantle. © 2006 The Authors Journal compilation © 2006 RAS.