Volume creation

Question

I have a database as such:

• d(:,1) = longitude
• d(:,2) = latitude
• d(:,3) = depth
• d(:,4) = toxic metal concentration.

The data is irregularly spaced, and as you can see, all data are vector data. Could you please tell me how to make a volume where all the metal concentrations are plotted as color (so that easily identifiable where it is high or low) while longitude, latitude, and depth would be in the x-axis, y-axis, and z-axis respectively?

I know I have to make my d(:,4) = volume data (3D matrix which must correspond to lat, long and depth data). But I’m unsure how to create that 3D array...

Answer 1

Try scatter3(X,Y,Z,S,C) (see doc)

X,Y,Z is self-explanatory. S is size of markers, and C the color; you can vary either according to your data.

Please, give it a try, and update your question if you encounter difficulties.

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Update 1: Thanks to your comments I think that you want to interpolate the data on a regular grid, and slice the data.

% create a regularly spaced mesh between the exterma of the dataset
xx = linspace(min(d(:,1)),min(d(:,1)),100);
yy = linspace(min(d(:,2)),min(d(:,2)),100);
zz = linspace(min(d(:,3)),min(d(:,3)),100);

[xi,yi,zi] = meshgrid(xx, yy, zz);

% interpolate the data in the regular space
vi = interp3(d(:,1), d(:,2), d(:,3), d(:,4), xi, yi, zi, 'spline');

% choose the slice planes
xslice = [-10 10]; yslice = 0; zslice = [-100, -50, -10];

% display the sliced interpolated data
slice(xi,yi,zi,vi,xslice,yslice,zslice);

Look up the functions in the help (you may need to tune up the parameters).

But next time: try something yourself and post your attempt. It's much easier to help, plus you'll learn more.