Visualization of irregular multivariate data

The authors discuss effective techniques for representing scalar and vector valued functions that interpolate to irregularly located data. Special attention is given to the situations where the sampling domain is a two-dimensional plane, 3-D volume, or a closed 3-D surface. The authors first discuss the multiquadric and thin-plate spline methods for interpolating scalar data sampled at arbitrary locations in a plane. Straightforward generalizations are then made to data sampled in 3-D volumetric regions as well as in higher dimensional spaces. The globally defined interpolants can be evaluated on a fine regular grid and they can then be visualized using conventional techniques. Triangular and tetrahedral based visualization techniques are also presented