This is a digital computer contouring program developed by combining desirable characteristics from several existing contouring programs. It can easily be adapted to many different research requirements. The overlaid structure of the program permits desired modifications to be made with ease.
The contouring program performs both the task of generating a depth matrix from either randomly or regularly spaced surface heights and the task of contouring the data. Each element of the depth matrix is computed as a weighted mean of heights predicted at an element by planes tangent to the surface at neighboring control points. Each contour line is determined by its intercepts with the sides of geometrical figures formed by connecting the various elements of the depth matrix with straight lines.
Although contour charts are usually thought of as being two-dimensional pictorial representations of topographic formations of land masses, they can also be useful in portraying data which are obtained during the course of research in various scientific disciplines and which would ordinarily be tabulated. Any set of data which can be referenced to a two-dimensional coordinate system can be graphically represented by this program. ( NASA Langley Research Center )
This program was released by NASA through COSMIC as LAR-10872. The italicized text above is from the official NASA release.