Document Type
Article
Publication Date
2016
Abstract
A collection of algorithms is described for numerically computing with smooth functions defined on the unit sphere. Functions are approximated to essentially machine precision by using a structure-preserving iterative variant of Gaussian elimination together with the double Fourier sphere method. We show that this procedure allows for stable differentiation, reduces the oversampling of functions near the poles, and converges for certain analytic functions. Operations such as function evaluation, differentiation, and integration are particularly efficient and can be computed by essentially one-dimensional algorithms. A highlight is an optimal complexity direct solver for Poisson's equation on the sphere using a spectral method. Without parallelization, we solve Poisson's equation with $100$ million degrees of freedom in 1 minute on a standard laptop. Numerical results are presented throughout. In a companion paper (part II) we extend the ideas presented here to computing with functions on the disk.
Copyright Statement
First published in SIAM Journal on Scientific Computing in Volume 38, Issue 4 (2016), published by the Society of Industrial and Applied Mathematics (SIAM).
© 2016 Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics
Publication Information
Townsend, Alex; Wilber, Heather; and Wright, Grady B.. (2016). "Computing with Functions in Spherical and Polar Geometries I. The Sphere". SIAM Journal on Scientific Computing, 38(4), C403-C425. https://doi.org/10.1137/15M1045855