# Smoothing and Interpolating Noisy GPS Data with Smoothing Splines

## TL;DR

This paper presents a comprehensive method for smoothing and interpolating noisy, irregular GPS data using smoothing splines, accommodating non-Gaussian noise and outliers, with demonstrated effectiveness on oceanographic drifter data.

## Contribution

It introduces a novel approach for selecting spline parameters based on physical reasoning and handling non-Gaussian noise and outliers in GPS data.

## Key findings

- Effective smoothing of GPS trajectories with non-Gaussian noise.
- Robust handling of outliers in GPS data.
- Validated on oceanographic drifter data.

## Abstract

A comprehensive methodology is provided for smoothing noisy, irregularly sampled data with non-Gaussian noise using smoothing splines. We demonstrate how the spline order and tension parameter can be chosen a priori from physical reasoning. We also show how to allow for non-Gaussian noise and outliers which are typical in GPS signals. We demonstrate the effectiveness of our methods on GPS trajectory data obtained from oceanographic floating instruments known as drifters.