IDL and 3D scattered data

["Todd Bowers" <tbowers(at)nrlssc.navy.mil>]

Uh oh...
I thought that IDL could help me out with 3D
oceanographic data visualization. Turns out it
just ain't so. There doesn't seem to be a way to
interpolate scattered 3D data in IDL. Anybody know
of a routine(s) that'll do what triangulate/trigrid
or sph_scat will do but in 3 spacial dimensions? BTW,
when I say 3D scattered data, I mean *real* 3D
scattered data. That means 3 independant variables
and 1 dependant variable, as in x,y,z,f(xyz). E.g., I have
data in the form:

Longitude    Latitude    Depth    Temperature
-84.3333    22.6105    0.0        24.2
-84.3333    22.6105    2.7        24.0
-84.3333    22.6105    5.0        23.2
-84.3104    22.6384    0.2        24.2
-84.3104    22.6384    2.2        23.2
-84.3104    22.6384    4.8        23.1
-84.2999    22.6480    0.1        25.1
etc,
etc.

For some reason alot of scientists and scientific packages
refer to 2D plots that are rotated into 3D space
as 3D stuff (surface, shade_surf, and David Fanning's
example of using PlotS,...,/T3D in his book are good
examples. Great book, BTW!). It may be a nit pick, but
certainly no one would view a graph of f(x)=x as a 2
dimensional graph.
Sooo... any thoughts on my rantings? Any pointers to
some 3D interpolation stuff?

Thanks,
Todd
--
Todd Bowers
PSI-MSAAP Bldg. 9121
Stennis Space Center, MS
tbowers@nrlssc.navy.mil