CHARACTERISTIC MEAN AND DISPERSION IN SURFACE ORIENTATIONS FOR A ZONE

Descriptive statistics for mean and dispersion measures of surface ori entations are important in characterizing a zone of such diversity tha t more than one observation is required to represent it adequately. Th e derivation of such statistics related to aspect is problematic becau se of the circular scale used to measure aspect and the hemispherical scale for both slope and aspect. Two techniques are presented for comp uting the mean and dispersion measures of aspect and a bi-directional surface orientation. The relevant directional statistics are briefly p resented with appropriate examples.