diff --git a/da_functions.py b/da_functions.py
index 003a70e283f3810f815e93f4fa1013b1b4ca0a01..d6926c88fdfd9bcd9f16537a04ec0af9e200730d 100644
--- a/da_functions.py
+++ b/da_functions.py
@@ -957,3 +957,52 @@ def LETKF_analysis(bg,obs,m_const,da_const):
     
     
     return x_a,x_ol_a
+
+
+
+
+def L2_regularized_inversion(A, b, alpha_init=0.1,alpha=None,mismatch_threshold=0.05):
+    """Instead of solving for Ax=b, which isn't possible if A is not invertible, the regularization instead minimizes ||Ax-b||^2 + || alpha x ||^2.
+    The solution is unique and well defined: x = (AA.T + alpha*alpha I )^-1 A.T b.
+    
+    While this works fine with np.linalg.inv, I use .solve instead because it is roughly a factor 3 quicker.  
+    
+    I tried to find a easy way to link the starting alpha to the model space or ensemble size, but after not finding anything easy I just start with a prescribed value
+    which is 0.1 by default. It is checked that the mismatch between sum(Ax-b)/sum(b) does not exceed the mismatch_threshold, and if it does alpha is reduced by a factor of 2 until it does. 
+    The mismatch_threshold is given in percent, and is used to check if  ||(Ax-b)||/||b|| falls below the theshold.  
+    
+    alternative would be to try to use the things presented by Shu-Chih Yang's talk at the ISDA-online
+    kappa_req = 10000.
+    n = numbers of non-diagonal componentts of correlation matrix C
+    r = average of non-diagonal componentts of correlation matrix C
+    lamda_max = 1+(n_cols-1)*r
+    alpha = lamda_max/kappa_req
+    print(kappa_req,r,lamda_max,alpha)
+    
+    
+    """
+    n_cols = A.shape[1]
+    I = np.identity(n_cols)
+    #n_ens = b.size
+    #this is just a guess, but alpha should decrease with size, is not applied if a value other than 1 is applied
+    if alpha == None: 
+        #alpha= 1./np.sqrt(n_cols)
+        alpha= alpha_init #1#n_cols/n_ens
+        #x = np.linalg.inv(A.T.dot(A) + alpha**2 *I).dot(A.T).dot(b)
+        x = np.linalg.solve((A.T.dot(A) + alpha**2 *I),(A.T).dot(b))#,rcond=-1)
+        while  np.sum(np.abs(A.dot(x)-b))/np.sum(np.abs(b))> mismatch_threshold:
+            alpha = alpha/2
+            x = np.linalg.solve((A.T.dot(A) + alpha**2 *I),(A.T).dot(b))#,rcond=-1)
+            #x = np.linalg.inv(A.T.dot(A) + alpha**2 *I).dot(A.T).dot(b)
+            #print('reducing regularization:',alpha,np.sum(np.abs(A.dot(x)-b))/np.sum(np.abs(b)))
+    else:
+        x = np.linalg.solve((A.T.dot(A) + alpha**2 *I),(A.T).dot(b))#,rcond=-1)
+        #x = np.linalg.inv(A.T.dot(A) + alpha**2 *I).dot(A.T).dot(b)
+        
+    
+    return  x
+
+
+
+
+