Analysis of real vector fields on the sphere using Slepian functions

We pose and solve the analogue of Slepian's time-frequency concentration problem for vector fields on the surface of the unit sphere, to determine an orthogonal family of strictly bandlimited vector fields that are optimally concentrated within a closed region of the sphere or, alternatively, of strictly spacelimited functions that are optimally concentrated in the vector spherical harmonic domain. Such a basis of simultaneously spatially and spectrally concentrated functions should be a useful data analysis and representation tool in a variety of geophysical and planetary applications, as well as in medical imaging, computer science, cosmology, and numerical analysis.