Interpolation of vector fields (a notoriously tricky process) to determine the divergence can be avoided by using an integral definition of the divergence via Stokes' theorem. You can find a discussion of this method in On the interpolation of a vector field (1979). For a more recent discussion see A Quantitative Comparison between Traditional and Line Integral Methods of Derivative Estimation (2001).

The “traditional” approach to estimating vector field derivatives extracts a gridded field from the original observations, which are typically not uniformly distributed in space. However, there exist other methods involving derivative estimation via line integral (“triangle”) techniques that do not involve a prior mapping of the field onto a uniform grid. Empirical testing of the differences between wind field derivative estimation using two different schemes is done with prototypical examples of the techniques. The test results make it clear that the traditional method is generally inferior to derivative estimates via the line integral methodology.

Interpolation of vector fields (a notoriously tricky process) to determine the divergence can be avoided by using a line integral definition of the divergence via Stokes' theorem. You can find a discussion of this method in On the interpolation of a vector field (1979). For a more recent discussion see A Quantitative Comparison between Traditional and Line Integral Methods of Derivative Estimation (2001).

The “traditional” approach to estimating vector field derivatives extracts a gridded field from the original observations, which are typically not uniformly distributed in space. However, there exist other methods involving derivative estimation via line integral (“triangle”) techniques that do not involve a prior mapping of the field onto a uniform grid. Empirical testing of the differences between vector field derivative estimation using two different schemes is done with prototypical examples of the techniques in the context of meteorological wind data. The test results make it clear that the traditional method is generally inferior to derivative estimates via the line integral methodology.