[ncl-talk] NCL spline question

[Dennis Shea]

I would try separately. D

On Wed, Dec 23, 2015 at 5:07 PM, Jonathan Vigh <jvigh at ucar.edu> wrote:
> Hi Dennis,
>    Do you mean use ftcurv separately for lat and for lon as functions of
> time? Would fitting each separately interfere the 2d nature of this problem?
> Jonathan
>
>
>
> On 12/23/2015 04:54 PM, Dennis Shea wrote:
>>
>> Try:
>>
>> http://www.ncl.ucar.edu/Document/Functions/Built-in/ftcurv.shtml
>> http://www.ncl.ucar.edu/Document/Functions/Built-in/ftcurvs.shtml
>>
>> Experiment with the tension.
>>
>>
>> Merry Christmas
>> D
>>
>> On Wed, Dec 23, 2015 at 4:15 PM, Jonathan Vigh <jvigh at ucar.edu> wrote:
>>>
>>> As an update to my question, a colleague informed me that Matlab has a
>>> function called pchip: Piecewise Cubic Hermite Interpolating Polynomial
>>> (PCHIP). It is the same as a regular cubic spline but it does not permit
>>> overshoot/undershoot, which can occur with regular cubic splines.
>>> http://www.mathworks.com/help/matlab/ref/pchip.html?s_tid=gn_loc_drop
>>>
>>> I think something like this would be sufficient for my problem.
>>>
>>> Do any of NCL's functions offer this type of spline?
>>>
>>> Thanks,
>>>      Jonathan
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> On 12/23/2015 04:01 PM, Jonathan Vigh wrote:
>>>>
>>>> Greetings NCL-Talk,
>>>>
>>>> I'm trying to generate an interpolatory spline* for a lat/lon tropical
>>>> cyclone trajectory from a set of lat/lon points at semi-regular time
>>>> intervals. The input points are regularly spaced (for the most part)
>>>> 6-hourly Best Track points, however there are occasional irregular
>>>> time points in between, such as the exact time of landfall. The
>>>> desired output is a semi-regular grid of hourly points, but with the
>>>> same few irregular time points as the for the input times.
>>>>
>>>> (*An interpolatory spline is one in which the interpolated spline
>>>> passes through the points that are being interpolated from, as opposed
>>>> to an approximating spline which does not have to pass through the
>>>> points.)
>>>>
>>>> It was suggested that NCL's ftkurv function (from the FitGrid library)
>>>> might do what I'd like, since this does an interpolation for
>>>> parametric curves. If I understand my problem correctly, lat and lon
>>>> can be thought of as parameters of time.
>>>>
>>>> The example plot for ftkurv looks promising:
>>>> http://www.ncarg.ucar.edu/ngmath/fitgrid/plot4.html
>>>>
>>>> ftkurv (
>>>>                  xi [*] : numeric,
>>>>                  yi [*] : numeric,
>>>>                  t  [*] : numeric,
>>>>                  xo [*] : float,    ; or double
>>>>                  yo [*] : float     ; or double
>>>>          )
>>>>
>>>> In the example given for this function, the parameter array passed in
>>>> for 't' is a regularly-spaced normalized parameter array that ranges
>>>> from 0 to 1. I don't understand where this function gets any
>>>> information about the input time values however. I built a test case
>>>> for a real hurricane track and validated the interpolated spline
>>>> points at the input points. I get zero "error" at the end points of
>>>> the track, with maximum error in the middle. The error increases and
>>>> decreases smoothly, suggesting an offset issue (probably related to
>>>> time drift).
>>>>
>>>> - Does anybody know if this function allow for irregular parameter
>>>> values for 't'?
>>>> - Is there a way to use ftkurv in a way that makes it aware of the
>>>> times of the input lat/lon?
>>>>
>>>> I've created a fairly detailed stand-alone test code, which is
>>>> attached. Feel free to run to see the error characteristics of the
>>>> ftkurv spline.
>>>>
>>>> Ultimately, I'd like to be able to do piecewise cubic spline
>>>> interpolation along the lines of what is done for gps tracks:
>>>> http://topofusion.com/spline.php (piecewise interpolation, matching
>>>> derivatives to ensure continuity of slope, Bessel interpolation used
>>>> to compute the first derivative by fitting a 3-point parabola for each
>>>> point). If someone has already implemented something like this in NCL,
>>>> that would of course be awesome. But I can make do with something more
>>>> basic provided it can handle the irregular input/output times.
>>>>
>>>> If anyone has experience with this type of spline problem, or has
>>>> suggestions on other NCL routines to try, I'd appreciate any input you
>>>> can provide.
>>>>
>>>> Jonathan
>>>
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>
>