ContinuousField

Continuous floating-point values associated with each point across a two-dimensional (x, y) extent. Continuous fields represent phenomena that vary continuously across the two-dimensional extent. For example, a field in which each location is an interpolated measure of a phenomenon. Continuous data is also referred to as nondiscrete, or surface data.

Examples of continuous fields include:

• Elevation

• Temperature

• Pollutant concentration

• Aspect

• Probability of visibility

One type of continuous field is derived from those characteristics that define a surface, in which each location is measured from a fixed origin. These include elevation (the fixed origin being sea level) and aspect (the fixed origin being direction: north, east, south, and west).

Another type of continuous field includes phenomena that progressively vary as they move across a field from a source. Illustrations of progressively varying continuous data are fluid and air movement. These fields are characterized by the type or manner in which the phenomenon moves. The first type of movement is through diffusion or any other locomotion in which the phenomenon moves from areas with high concentration to those with less concentration until the concentration level evens out. Surface characteristics of this type of movement include salt concentration moving through either the ground or water, contamination level moving away from a hazardous spill or a nuclear reactor, and heat from a forest fire. In this type of continuous surface, there has to be a source. The concentration is always greater near the source and diminishes as a function of distance and the medium the substance is moving through.

See also