Bayesian approach with emcee - Lees Ferry - 4 free parameters (and an additional constraint on time-integrated erosion)

Application of the Bayesian approach with 4 free parameters (erosion rate, time exposure, density and inheritance) to the Lees Ferry M4y sand-deposit terrace site (see Hidy et al. 2010), using the emcee package.

We also define here an additional constraint on the total erosion (erosion rate integrated over the time exposure).

For more info about the method used, see the notebook Inference_Notes.

This notebook has the following external dependencies:


In [1]:
import math
import csv

import numpy as np
import pandas as pd
from scipy import stats
from scipy import optimize
import emcee
import yaml

import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
import seaborn as sns

%matplotlib inline
clr_plt = sns.color_palette()

The mathematical (deterministic, forward) model

An implementation of the mathematical model used for predicting profiles of 10Be concentrations is available in the models Python module (see the notebook Models). The 10Be model assumes that the soil density is constant along the depth profile and that the inheritance is the same for the whole sample of 10Be concentration vs. depth.


In [2]:
import models

The data


In [3]:
profile_data = pd.read_csv('profiles_data/lees_ferry_m4y_sand_10Be_profile.csv',
                           index_col='sample',
                           delim_whitespace=True,
                           comment='#',
                           quoting=csv.QUOTE_NONNUMERIC, quotechar='\"',
                           na_values=[-9999],
                           dtype={'depth': 'f', 'depth_g-cm-2': 'f',
                                  'C': 'f', 'std': 'f'})

profile_data


Out[3]:
depth depth_g-cm-2 C std nuclide
sample
s01 27.5 NaN 568744 17347 10Be
s02 57.5 NaN 406713 11469 10Be
s03 97.5 NaN 292243 8972 10Be
s04 137.5 NaN 203072 6234 10Be
s05 177.5 NaN 157209 4921 10Be
s06 217.5 NaN 134198 3892 10Be

Import other parameters


In [4]:
with open('profiles_data/lees_ferry_m4y_sand_10Be_settings.yaml') as f:
    ferry_settings = yaml.load(f)

ferry_settings


Out[4]:
{'P_0': 9.51, 'altitude': 985.0, 'latitude': 36.852, 'pressure': 995.004}

Make a plot of the dataset


In [5]:
sns.set_context('notebook')

fig, ax = plt.subplots()

profile_data.plot(
    y='depth', x='C', xerr='std',
    kind="scatter", ax=ax, rot=45
)

ax.invert_yaxis()


The statistical model used for computing the posterior probability density PPD

Here below we define a data model by the tuple m = (eps, t, rho, inh). It correspond to a given location in the 4-d parameter space.

  • Define the parameter names. It is important to use the same order to further define the priors and bounds tuples!

In [6]:
param_names = ('erosion rate', 'time exposure',
               'soil density', 'inheritance')
  • Define the prior probability distribution for each free parameter. Here the uniform distribution is used, with given bounds (loc and scale arguments of scipy.stats.uniform are the lower bound and the range, respectively)

In [7]:
eps_prior = stats.uniform(loc=0., scale=1e-3)
t_prior = stats.uniform(loc=0., scale=4e5)
rho_prior = stats.uniform(loc=2.2, scale=0.3)
inh_prior = stats.uniform(loc=0., scale=1.5e5)

priors = eps_prior, t_prior, rho_prior, inh_prior
param_priors = pd.Series(priors, index=param_names)
  • Define (min, max) bounds for each free parameter. It should be given by lower and upper quantiles (lower_qtl, upper_qtl) of the prior distribution. Choose the extreme quantiles (0, 1) if the distribution is uniform. It will be used for plotting purpose and also for constrained optimization (see below).

In [8]:
def get_bounds(f, lower_qtl=0., upper_qtl=1.):
    return f.ppf(lower_qtl), f.ppf(upper_qtl)

eps_bounds = get_bounds(eps_prior, 0, 1)
t_bounds = get_bounds(t_prior, 0, 1)
rho_bounds = get_bounds(rho_prior, 0, 1)
inh_bounds = get_bounds(inh_prior, 0, 1)

bounds = eps_bounds, t_bounds, rho_bounds, inh_bounds
param_bounds = pd.DataFrame(
    np.array(bounds), columns=('min', 'max'), index=param_names
)

param_bounds


Out[8]:
min max
erosion rate 0.0 0.001
time exposure 0.0 400000.000
soil density 2.2 2.500
inheritance 0.0 150000.000
  • Plot the prior probability density for each parameter.

In [9]:
fig, axes = plt.subplots(1, 4, figsize=(13, 3))

for ax, p, b, name in zip(axes.flatten(),
                          param_priors.values,
                          param_bounds.values,
                          param_names):
    xmin, xmax = b
    eps = 0.1 * (xmax - xmin)
    x = np.linspace(xmin - eps, xmax + eps, 200)
    d = p.pdf(x)
    ax.plot(x, d)
    ax.fill(x, d, alpha=0.4)
    plt.setp(ax.xaxis.get_majorticklabels(), rotation=45)
    plt.setp(ax, ylim=(0, None), yticklabels=[],
             xlabel=name)

plt.subplots_adjust()


  • Define a function that returns the (logarithm of the) prior probability density for a given data model m.

In [27]:
def lnprior(m):
    lps = [p.logpdf(v) for (p, v) in zip(priors, m)]
    if not np.all(np.isfinite(lps)):
        return -np.inf
    return np.sum(lps)
  • Define here the additional constraints which accept a data model $m$ as argument. It should return a log(probability).

In [28]:
def lnaddconst(m):
    eps, t, rho, inh = m
    
    # net erosion must be <= 30 cm
    if eps * t > 30:
        return -np.inf
    
    return 0
  • Define a function that returns the log-likelihood. It is a $n$-dimensional Gaussian ($n$ nucleide concentrations sampled along the depth profile) with the mean given by the formard model and the variance given by the error estimated from the measurements of the nucleide concentration of each sample. This Gaussian implies that (1) the error on each measurement is random, (2) the sampled nucleide concentrations are measured independently of each other, (3) the forward model - i.e., the deterministic model that predicts the nucleide concentration profile - represents the real physics and (4) the values of the non-free parameters of the forward model - e.g., nucleide surface production rate, attenuation lengths... - are exactly known. We also include here the additional constraints.

In [32]:
def lnlike(m):
    eps, t, rho, inh = m
    
    mean = models.C_10Be(profile_data['depth'].values,
                         eps, t, rho, inh,
                         P_0=ferry_settings['P_0'])
    var = profile_data['std']**2
    
    lngauss = -0.5 * np.sum(
        np.log(2. * np.pi * var) +
        (profile_data['C'] - mean)**2 / var
    )   
    
    return lngauss + lnaddconst(m)
  • Define a function that returns the log-posterior probability density, according to the Bayes's theorem.

In [33]:
def lnprob(m):
    lp = lnprior(m)
    if not np.isfinite(lp):
        return -np.inf
    return lp + lnlike(m)

Sampling the posterior probablility density using MCMC

In our case, the from of the PPD may be highly anisotropic ; it may present high (negative or positive) correlations between its parameters (erosion rate, exposure time, soil density, inheritance). Usually, these relationships are even non-linear.

It is therefore important to use a robust algorithm to sample this complex PPD. The Affine Invariant Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) Ensemble sampler implemented in the emcee package will be more efficient in our case than the standard MCMC algorithms such as the Metropolis-Hasting method.

The emcee sampler allows to define multiple, independent walkers. This requires to first set the initial position of each walker in the parameter space. As shown in the emcee documentation, the author suggests initializing the walkers in a tiny Gaussian ball around the maximum likelihood result. We can obtain the maximum likelihood estimate by applying an optimization algorithm such as one of those implemented in the scipy.optimize module. Note that non-linear optimization usually requires to provide an initial guess.

Given our complex, non-linear, and potentially flat form of the PDD in some areas of the parameter space, we prefer to set the initial positions of the walkers as the maximum likelihood estimates resulting from randomly chosing initial guesses in the parameter space according to the prior probability density. Note that we use a constrained optimization algorithm to ensure that the initial positions are within the bounds defined above.


In [34]:
n_params, n_walkers = len(param_names), 100

# randomly choose initial guesses according to the prior
# and also according to the additional constraints
guesses = np.array(
    [p.rvs(size=n_walkers * 100) for p in priors]
).T
addconst_guesses = [lnaddconst(g) for g in guesses]
valid_guesses = guesses[np.isfinite(addconst_guesses)]
init_guesses = valid_guesses[0:n_walkers]

# perform non-linear optimization from each initial guess
op_lnlike = lambda *args: -lnlike(*args)
init_walkers = np.empty_like(init_guesses)

for i, g in enumerate(init_guesses):
    res = optimize.minimize(op_lnlike, g,
                            method='TNC',
                            bounds=bounds)
    init_walkers[i] = res['x']

We show below the initial guesses and the initial positions of the walkers in a scatter plot.


In [35]:
df_init_guesses = pd.DataFrame(init_guesses, columns=param_names)
df_init_walkers = pd.DataFrame(init_walkers, columns=param_names)

def scatter_pos(xcol, ycol, ax):
    df_init_guesses.plot(
        kind='scatter', x=xcol, y=ycol,
        alpha=0.5, ax=ax, color=clr_plt[0], label='init guesses'
    )
    df_init_walkers.plot(
        kind='scatter', x=xcol, y=ycol,
        alpha=1., ax=ax, color=clr_plt[2], label='init walkers'
    )
    legend = ax.legend(frameon=True, loc='lower right')
    legend.get_frame().set_facecolor('w')
    plt.setp(ax, xlim=param_bounds.loc[xcol],
             ylim=param_bounds.loc[ycol])

fig, ax = plt.subplots(3, 2, figsize=(12,12))
scatter_pos('erosion rate', 'time exposure', ax[0][0])
scatter_pos('soil density', 'time exposure', ax[0][1])
scatter_pos('erosion rate', 'soil density', ax[1][0])
scatter_pos('inheritance', 'time exposure', ax[1][1])
scatter_pos('erosion rate', 'inheritance', ax[2][0])
scatter_pos('soil density', 'inheritance', ax[2][1])


We can then setup the emcee sampler and run the MCMC for n_steps iterations starting from the initial positions defined above.


In [36]:
sampler = emcee.EnsembleSampler(n_walkers, n_params, lnprob)

n_steps = 500
sampler.run_mcmc(init_walkers, n_steps)

mcmc_samples = pd.DataFrame(sampler.flatchain,
                            columns=param_names)

Let's plot the trace of the MCMC iterations.


In [37]:
sample_plot_range = slice(None)

axes = mcmc_samples[sample_plot_range].plot(
    kind='line', subplots=True,
    figsize=(10, 8), color=clr_plt[0]
)


Try plotting only the firsts samples (e.g., sample_range = slice(0, 1000)). We see that thanks to the initial positions of the walkers, the emcee sampler quickly starts exploring the full posterior distribution. The “burn-in” period is small and we can therefore set a small value for nburn below.


In [38]:
nburn = 100

mcmc_kept_samples = pd.DataFrame(
    sampler.chain[:, nburn:, :].reshape((-1, n_params)),
    columns=param_names
)

We can visualize the sampled posterior propbability density by joint plots of the MCMC samples.


In [39]:
def jointplot_density(xcol, ycol, lim_qtl=(0.01, 0.99)):
    lower_qtl, upper_qtl = lim_qtl
    p = sns.jointplot(
        xcol, ycol,
        data=mcmc_kept_samples,
        xlim=(mcmc_kept_samples[xcol].quantile(lower_qtl),
              mcmc_kept_samples[xcol].quantile(upper_qtl)),
        ylim=(mcmc_kept_samples[ycol].quantile(lower_qtl),
              mcmc_kept_samples[ycol].quantile(upper_qtl)),
        joint_kws={'alpha': 0.02}
    )

jointplot_density('erosion rate', 'time exposure')
jointplot_density('soil density', 'time exposure')
jointplot_density('erosion rate', 'soil density')
jointplot_density('erosion rate', 'inheritance')
jointplot_density('inheritance', 'time exposure')
jointplot_density('soil density', 'inheritance')


Given the samples, it is straightforward to characterize the posterior porbability density and estimate its moments.

  • the PPD mean (if the PPD distribution is strictly gaussian, it also correspond to the MAP (Maximum A-Posterori) and therefore the most probable model)

In [40]:
mcmc_kept_samples.mean()


Out[40]:
erosion rate         0.000172
time exposure    85342.974090
soil density         2.305498
inheritance      95458.485813
dtype: float64
  • the sample which have the max PPD value (i.e., the most probable sampled model)

In [41]:
max_ppd = sampler.lnprobability[:, nburn:].reshape((-1)).argmax()
mcmc_kept_samples.iloc[max_ppd]


Out[41]:
erosion rate         0.000273
time exposure    88652.968674
soil density         2.200005
inheritance      89244.941638
Name: 33851, dtype: float64
  • the PPD quantiles (useful for delineating the Bayesian confidence intervals or credible intervals for each free parameter)

In [42]:
percentiles = np.array([2.5, 5, 25, 50, 75, 95, 97.5])
mcmc_kept_samples.quantile(percentiles * 0.01)


Out[42]:
erosion rate time exposure soil density inheritance
0.025 0.000010 75147.970965 2.204692 85401.154582
0.050 0.000021 76274.373036 2.209358 86820.750344
0.250 0.000099 80984.447252 2.243251 91476.627392
0.500 0.000177 85045.616750 2.292094 95333.320246
0.750 0.000251 89620.908722 2.356053 99292.223768
0.950 0.000306 94936.424355 2.448211 104565.722119
0.975 0.000315 96601.377775 2.467368 106152.556177

We finally plot the nucleide concentration profiles (blue dots: data w/ error bars, red area: filled interval between the 1% and 99% percentiles of the MCMC samples).


In [43]:
fig, ax = plt.subplots()

# plot MCMC samples 1-99 percentiles
depths = np.linspace(profile_data['depth'].min(),
                     profile_data['depth'].max(),
                     50)
c_mcmc_samples = np.array(
    [models.C_10Be(depths, eps, t, rho, inh,
                   P_0=ferry_settings['P_0'])
     for (eps, t, rho, inh) in mcmc_kept_samples.values]
)
c01, c99 = np.percentile(c_mcmc_samples, (1, 99), axis=0)

ax.fill_betweenx(depths, c01, c99, color='r', alpha=0.3)
ax.plot(c01, depths, color='r')
ax.plot(c99, depths, color='r')

# plot the profile data with error bars
profile_data.plot(
    y='depth', x='C', xerr='std',
    kind="scatter", ax=ax, rot=45, zorder=5
)

ax.invert_yaxis()


Information about this notebook

Author: B. Bovy, Ulg


This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.