Smart Interpolation of Annually Averaged Air Temperature in the United States

Abstract Two “smart” interpolation procedures are presented and assessed with respect to their ability to estimate annual-average air temperatures at unsampled points in space from available station averages. Smart approaches examined here improve upon commonly used procedures in that they incorporate spatially high-resolution digital elevation information, an average environmental lapse rate, and/or another higher-resolution longer-term average temperature field. Two other straightforward or commonly used interpolation methods also are presented and evaluated as benchmarks to which the smart interpolators can be compared. Interpolation from a spatially high-resolution, long-term-average air temperature climatology serves as a first approximation, while “traditional” interpolation (from a single realization of annual average air temperature on a single station network) is the other benchmark. Traditional interpolation continues to be the most commonly used interpolation approach within many of the atmosph...