A New Shape Function Based Spatiotemporal Interpolation Method

In this paper we propose a new spatiotemporal interpolation method for 3-D space and 1-D time geographic data. Similarly to the existing ST (space-time) product and the tetrahedral spatiotemporal interpolation methods, this new method is also based on shape functions. However, instead of only manipulating the time dimension as in the ST product and the tetrahedral methods, our new method combines 2-D shape functions in the (x,y) domain with the (z,t) domain shape functions. This method yields data that can be represented and queried in constraint databases and we discuss how to represent this new method in constraint databases. We also show certain unique properties of the new shape function based spatiotemporal interpolation method.