## NAME

          nearneighbor - A "Nearest neighbor" gridding algorithm

## SYNOPSIS

          nearneighbor [ xyzfile(s) ] -Gout_grdfile -Ix_inc[m|c][/y_inc[m|c]]
          -Nsectors -Rwest/east/south/north[r] -Ssearch_radius[m|c|k|K] [ -Eempty
          ] [ -F ] [ -H[nrec] ] [ -Lflag ] [ -V ] [ -W ] [ -: ] [ -bi[s][n] ]

## DESCRIPTION

          nearneighbor reads arbitrarily located (x,y,z[,w]) triples
          [quadruplets] from standard input [or xyzfile(s)] and uses a nearest
          neighbor algorithm to assign an average value to each node that have
          one or more points within a radius centered on the node.  The average
          value is computed as a weighted mean of the nearest point from each
          sector inside the search radius.  The weighting function used is w(r)
          = 1.0 / (1 + d ^ 2), where d = 3 * r / search_radius and r is distance
          from the node.  This weight is modulated by the observation points'
          weights [if supplied].

          xyzfile(s)
               3 [or 4, see -W] column ASCII file(s) [or binary, see -b] holding
               (x,y,z[,w]) data values.  If no file is specified, nearneighbor
               will read from standard input.

          -G   Give the name of the output grdfile.

          -I   x_inc [and optionally y_inc] is the grid spacing. Append m to
               indicate minutes or c to indicate seconds.

          -N   The circular area centered on each node is divided into several
               sectors.  Average values will only be computed if there is at
               least one value inside each of the sectors for a given node.
               Nodes that fail this test are assigned the value NaN (but see
               -E).  [Default is quadrant search, i.e., sectors = 4].  Note that
               only the nearest value per sector enters into the averaging, not
               all values inside the circle.

          -R   west, east, south, and north specify the Region of interest.  To
               specify boundaries in degrees and minutes [and seconds], use the
               dd:mm[:ss] format.  Append r if lower left and upper right map
               coordinates are given instead of wesn.

          -S   Sets the search_radius in same units as the grid spacing; append
               m to indicate minutes or c to indicate seconds.  Append k to
               indicated km (implies -R -I are in degrees); use uppercase K if
               distances should be calculated using great circles [k uses flat
               Earth].

## OPTIONS

          -E   Set the value assigned to empty nodes [NaN].

          -F   Force pixel registration.  [Default is grid registration].

          -H   Input file(s) has Header record(s).  Number of header records can
               be changed by editing your .gmtdefaults file.  If used, GMT
               default is 1 header record.  Not used with binary data.

          -L   Boundary condition flag may be x or y or xy indicating data is
               periodic in range of x or y or both set by -R, or flag may be g
               indicating geographical conditions (x and y are lon and lat).
               [Default is no boundary conditions]

          -V   Selects verbose mode, which will send progress reports to stderr
               [Default runs "silently"].

          -:   Toggles between (longitude,latitude) and (latitude,longitude)
               input/output.  [Default is (longitude,latitude)].

          -W   Input data have a 4th column containing observation point
               weights.  These are multiplied with the geometrical weight factor
               to determine the actual weights used in the calculations.

          -bi  Selects binary input.  Append s for single precision [Default is
               double].  Append n for the number of columns in the binary
               file(s).  [Default is 3 (or 4 if -W is set) columns].

## EXAMPLES

          To create a gridded data set from the file seaMARCII_bathy.lon_lat_z
          using a 0.5 min grid, a 5 km search radius, using an octant search,
          and set empty nodes to -9999, try

          nearneighbor seaMARCII_bathy.lon_lat_z -R242/244/-22/-20 -I.5m -E-9999
          -Gbathymetry.grd -S5k -N8

          To make a global gridded file from the data in geoid.xyz using a 1
          degree grid, a 200 km search radius, spherical distances, using an
          quadrant search, and set empty nodes to NaN, try

          nearneighbor geoid.xyz -R0/360/-90/90 -I1 -Lg -Ggeoid.grd -S20K -N4

## SEE ALSO

          blockmean, blockmedian, blockmode, gmt, surface, triangulate