Following our discussion of attribute and vector data analysis, raster data analysis presents the final powerful data mining tool available to geographers. Raster data are particularly suited to certain types of analyses, such as basic geoprocessing (Section 8.1 "Basic Geoprocessing with Rasters"), surface analysis (Section 8.2 "Scale of Analysis"), and terrain mapping (Section 8.3 "Surface Analysis: Spatial Interpolation"). While not always true, raster data can simplify many types of spatial analyses that would otherwise be overly cumbersome to perform on vector datasets. Some of the most common of these techniques are presented in this chapter.