| Abstract: | Digital terrain modeling has a micro‐ and nanoscale counterpart in surface metrology, the numerical characterization of industrial surfaces. Instrumentation in semiconductor manufacturing and other high‐technology fields can now contour surface irregularities down to the atomic scale. Surface metrology has been revolutionized by its ability to manipulate square‐grid height matrices that are analogous to the digital elevation models (DEMs) used in physical geography. Because the shaping of industrial surfaces is a spatial process, the same concepts of analytical cartography that represent ground‐surface form in geography evolved independently in metrology. The surface topography of manufactured components, exemplified here by automobile‐engine cylinders, is routinely modeled by variogram analysis, relief shading, and most other techniques of parameterization and visualization familiar to geography. This article introduces industrial surface‐metrology, examines the field in the context of terrain modeling and geomorphology and notes their similarities and differences, and raises theoretical issues to be addressed in progressing toward a unified practice of surface morphometry. |
