A Global 'Natural' Grid Model Based on the Morse Complex

In the exploration and interpretation of the extensive or global natural phenomena such as environmental monitoring, climatic analysis, hydrological analysis, meteorological service, simulation of sea level rise, etc., knowledge about the shape properties of the earth surface and terrain features is urgently needed. However, traditional discrete global grids (DGG) can not directly provide it and are confronted with the challenge of the rapid data volume growth as the modern earth surveying technology develops. In this paper, a global "natural"grid (GNG) model based on the Morse complex is proposed and a relatively comprehensive and theoretical comparison with the traditional DGG models is analyzed in details as well as some issues to be resolved in the future. Finally, the experimental and analysis results indicate that this distinct GNG model built from DGG is more significant to the advance of the geospatial data acquisition technology and to the interpretation of those extensive or global natural phenomena.