LOCAL INTERPOLATION USING A DISTRIBUTED PARALLEL SUPERCOMPUTER

Large spatial interpolation problems present significant computational challenges even for the fastest workstations. In this paper we demons trate how parallel processing can be used to reduce computation times to levels that are suitable for interactive interpolation analyses of large spatial databases. Though the approach developed in this paper c an be used with a wide variety of interpolation algorithms, we specifi cally contrast the results obtained from a global 'brute force' invers e-distance weighted interpolation algorithm with those obtained using a much more efficient local approach. The parallel versions of both im plementations are superior to their sequential counterparts. However, the local version of the parallel algorithm provides the best overall performance.