GMS:Gradient Plane Nodal Functions

A limitation of Shepard's method is that the interpolating surface is a simple weighted average of the data values of the scatter points and is constrained to lie between the extreme values in the dataset. In other words, the surface does not infer local maxima or minima implicit in the dataset. This problem can be overcome by generalizing the basic form of the equation for Shepard's method in the following manner:

where Q_i are nodal functions or individual functions defined at each scatter point (Franke 1982; Watson & Philip 1985). The value of an interpolation point is calculated as the weighted average of the values of the nodal functions at that point. The standard form of Shepard's method can be thought of as a special case where horizontal planes (constants) are used for the nodal functions. The nodal functions can be sloping planes that pass through the scatter point. The equation for the plane is as follows:

where f_x and f_y are partial derivatives at the scatter point that have been previously estimated based on the geometry of the surrounding scatter points. Gradients are estimated in GMS by first triangulating the scatter points and computing the gradient at each scatter point as the average of the gradients of each of the triangles attached to the scatter point.

The planes represented by the above equation are sometimes called "gradient planes". By averaging planes rather than constant values at each scatter point, the resulting surface infers extremities and is asymptotic to the gradient plane at the scatter point rather than forming a flat plateau at the scatter point.

3D Interpolation

The 3D equivalent of a gradient plane is a "gradient hyperplane." The equation of a gradient hyperplane is as follows:

where f_x, f_y, and f_z are partial derivatives at the scatter point that are estimated based on the geometry of the surrounding scatter points. The gradients are found using a regression analysis which constrains the hyperplane to the scatter point and approximates the nearby scatter points in a least squares sense. At least five non-coplanar scatter points must be used.