Recent trends in computer contouring

Abstract

The contour map is, by far, the most common display mode for geophysical and geological data. With the increasing use of computers in geophysical data analysis, the demand for computer contoured maps is rapidly growing. Computer contouring has been available on a fairly routine basis for about ten years (see, for example, Dayhoff, 1963), but in spite of this, much programming effort (and money) is still being devoted to the research and development of new contouring programs. The main reason for this continuing research is the failure of previous effort to establish an interpolation technique for irregularly spaced data which gives consistently "good" results, under what- ever definition of "good" is applied. The purpose of this note is to describe the directions of some recent research into the contouring problem, and hopefully to suggest in which direction the ultimate solution may lie.