A spline interpolation technique that preserves mass budgets

The usual practice of forcing budget models by linear interpolations of mean data does not produce a forcing whose mean is the data value required. The usual third-order spline is modified into a fourth-order spline, called mc-spline, to cope with this issue. The technique provides a smooth and faithful continuous interpolation of the original data that is well suited for its graphical representations or for the forcing of numerical models. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.