Large number of columns usually indicates a wrong database design.
For example, if I understood correctly, you have a table like this:
- [ X ][ Y ][ Value ]
-
0 0 15.1
-
0 1 10.4
-
0 2 12.6
-
etc.
which contains all 2D values at a given moment in time. If you now add a DATETIME column, you can keep all your data in rows, and you don't need to care how many different Time values you will have.
-
[ Time ][ X ][ Y ][ Value ]
-
10:00 0 0 15.1
-
10:00 0 1 10.4
-
10:00 0 2 12.6
-
(...)
-
10:01 0 0 15.1
-
10:01 0 1 10.4
-
10:01 0 2 12.6
-
etc.
This is just a simple example of one way to turn your columns into rows. If you want to learn more about designing databases, Google for "database normalization".