Editorial Type:
Article
Article Type:
Research Article

On “Gridless” Interpolation and Subgrid Data Density

Toshio Michael Chin Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California

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Jorge Vazquez-Cuervo Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California

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Edward M. Armstrong Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California

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Print Publication:
01 Jul 2014
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1175/JTECH-D-13-00219.1
Page(s):
1642–1652
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Abstract

Nearest-neighbor gridding, binning, and bin-averaging procedures are performed routinely to map the irregularly sampled data onto a grid for data analysis and assimilation. Because these procedures are actually an interpolation procedure based on a piecewise constant function as the interpolation kernel, they tend to discard the subgrid locations of the data. Use of a locally continuous function for the interpolation kernel can preserve the subgrid location information in the data, at the cost of numerical sensitivity to the spatial variation in data density. This paper suggests a simple numerical procedure, based on a single correlation coefficient parameter, to eliminate such numerical sensitivity.

Corresponding author address: Mike Chin, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, M/S 238-600, 4800 Oak Grove Drive, Pasadena, CA 91109. E-mail: mike.chin@jpl.nasa.gov

Abstract

Nearest-neighbor gridding, binning, and bin-averaging procedures are performed routinely to map the irregularly sampled data onto a grid for data analysis and assimilation. Because these procedures are actually an interpolation procedure based on a piecewise constant function as the interpolation kernel, they tend to discard the subgrid locations of the data. Use of a locally continuous function for the interpolation kernel can preserve the subgrid location information in the data, at the cost of numerical sensitivity to the spatial variation in data density. This paper suggests a simple numerical procedure, based on a single correlation coefficient parameter, to eliminate such numerical sensitivity.

Corresponding author address: Mike Chin, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, M/S 238-600, 4800 Oak Grove Drive, Pasadena, CA 91109. E-mail: mike.chin@jpl.nasa.gov
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