tutorial:interpolate:ND_unstructured

Scattered data interpolation (griddata)

Suppose you have multidimensional data, for instance, for an underlying function $f(x,y)$ you only know the values at points (x[i], y[i]) that do not form a regular grid.

Suppose we want to interpolate the 2-D function

>>> import numpy as np
>>> def func(x, y):
...     return x*(1-x)*np.cos(4*np.pi*x) * np.sin(4*np.pi*y**2)**2

on a grid in [0, 1]x[0, 1]

>>> grid_x, grid_y = np.meshgrid(np.linspace(0, 1, 100),
...                              np.linspace(0, 1, 200), indexing='ij')

but we only know its values at 1000 data points:

>>> rng = np.random.default_rng()
>>> points = rng.random((1000, 2))
>>> values = func(points[:,0], points[:,1])

This can be done with `griddata` -- below, we try out all of the
interpolation methods:

>>> from scipy.interpolate import griddata
>>> grid_z0 = griddata(points, values, (grid_x, grid_y), method='nearest')
>>> grid_z1 = griddata(points, values, (grid_x, grid_y), method='linear')
>>> grid_z2 = griddata(points, values, (grid_x, grid_y), method='cubic')

One can see that the exact result is reproduced by all of the
methods to some degree, but for this smooth function the piecewise
cubic interpolant gives the best results (black dots show the data being
interpolated):

>>> import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
>>> plt.subplot(221)
>>> plt.imshow(func(grid_x, grid_y).T, extent=(0, 1, 0, 1), origin='lower')
>>> plt.plot(points[:, 0], points[:, 1], 'k.', ms=1)   # data
>>> plt.title('Original')
>>> plt.subplot(222)
>>> plt.imshow(grid_z0.T, extent=(0, 1, 0, 1), origin='lower')
>>> plt.title('Nearest')
>>> plt.subplot(223)
>>> plt.imshow(grid_z1.T, extent=(0, 1, 0, 1), origin='lower')
>>> plt.title('Linear')
>>> plt.subplot(224)
>>> plt.imshow(grid_z2.T, extent=(0, 1, 0, 1), origin='lower')
>>> plt.title('Cubic')
>>> plt.gcf().set_size_inches(6, 6)
>>> plt.show()

For each interpolation method, this function delegates to a corresponding class object --- these classes can be used directly as well --- NearestNDInterpolator, LinearNDInterpolator and CloughTocher2DInterpolator for piecewise cubic interpolation in 2D.

All these interpolation methods rely on triangulation of the data using the QHull library wrapped in scipy.spatial.

Using radial basis functions for smoothing/interpolation

Radial basis functions can be used for smoothing/interpolating scattered data in N dimensions, but should be used with caution for extrapolation outside of the observed data range.

1-D Example

This example compares the usage of the RBFInterpolator and UnivariateSpline classes from the scipy.interpolate module.

>>> import numpy as np
>>> from scipy.interpolate import RBFInterpolator, InterpolatedUnivariateSpline
>>> import matplotlib.pyplot as plt

>>> # setup data
>>> x = np.linspace(0, 10, 9).reshape(-1, 1)
>>> y = np.sin(x)
>>> xi = np.linspace(0, 10, 101).reshape(-1, 1)

>>> # use fitpack2 method
>>> ius = InterpolatedUnivariateSpline(x, y)
>>> yi = ius(xi)

>>> fix, (ax1, ax2) = plt.subplots(2, 1)
>>> ax1.plot(x, y, 'bo')
>>> ax1.plot(xi, yi, 'g')
>>> ax1.plot(xi, np.sin(xi), 'r')
>>> ax1.set_title('Interpolation using univariate spline')

>>> # use RBF method
>>> rbf = RBFInterpolator(x, y)
>>> fi = rbf(xi)

>>> ax2.plot(x, y, 'bo')
>>> ax2.plot(xi, fi, 'g')
>>> ax2.plot(xi, np.sin(xi), 'r')
>>> ax2.set_title('Interpolation using RBF - multiquadrics')
>>> plt.tight_layout()
>>> plt.show()

2-D Example

This example shows how to interpolate scattered 2-D data:

>>> import numpy as np
>>> from scipy.interpolate import RBFInterpolator
>>> import matplotlib.pyplot as plt

>>> # 2-d tests - setup scattered data
>>> rng = np.random.default_rng()
>>> xy = rng.random((100, 2))*4.0-2.0
>>> z = xy[:, 0]*np.exp(-xy[:, 0]**2-xy[:, 1]**2)
>>> edges = np.linspace(-2.0, 2.0, 101)
>>> centers = edges[:-1] + np.diff(edges[:2])[0] / 2.
>>> x_i, y_i = np.meshgrid(centers, centers)
>>> x_i = x_i.reshape(-1, 1)
>>> y_i = y_i.reshape(-1, 1)
>>> xy_i = np.concatenate([x_i, y_i], axis=1)

>>> # use RBF
>>> rbf = RBFInterpolator(xy, z, epsilon=2)
>>> z_i = rbf(xy_i)

>>> # plot the result
>>> fig, ax = plt.subplots()
>>> X_edges, Y_edges = np.meshgrid(edges, edges)
>>> lims = dict(cmap='RdBu_r', vmin=-0.4, vmax=0.4)
>>> mapping = ax.pcolormesh(
...     X_edges, Y_edges, z_i.reshape(100, 100),
...     shading='flat', **lims
... )
>>> ax.scatter(xy[:, 0], xy[:, 1], 100, z, edgecolor='w', lw=0.1, **lims)
>>> ax.set(
...     title='RBF interpolation - multiquadrics',
...     xlim=(-2, 2),
...     ylim=(-2, 2),
... )
>>> fig.colorbar(mapping)