Professional development series for CSU's Department of Atmospheric Science REU program in 2021

1. MAKING
EFFECTIVE FIGURES
ZACHARY LABE | 20 JULY 2021 | REU PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT | COLORADO STATE UNIVERSITY

3. Polar Amplification: acceleration of
warming in high latitudes relative to
the rest of the globe

6. Warmer
Colder
NOW
Start of
satellite-era

7. Polar Amplification:
acceleration of warming in
high latitudes relative to
the rest of the globe

8. DATA VISUALIZATION
IS STORY-TELLING.

9. DON’T BE
SUCH A
SCIENTIST
WE ARE
DATA
SCIENTISTS
ART BY JILL PELTO

10. Landscape of Change uses data
about sea level rise, glacier volume
decline, increasing global
temperatures, and the increasing use
of fossil fuels. These data lines
compose a landscape shaped by
the changing climate, a world in
which we are now living.
Jill Pelto|http://www.jillpelto.com/landscape-of-change
“
”

11. BEGINNING WITH
OUR DATA.

13. LINE GRAPHS
Temperature
Anomaly
(°C)

19. :)

23. MAP PLOTS

24. YIKES!

25. YIKES – FONT IS BLEH!

26. YIKES – COLOR!

27. MAP PROJECTION!

28. :)

29. HAVE FUN!

36. SURPRISINGLY EFFECTIVE.

37. Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-CT) - Time to Wake Up: Climate Progress Speech (3/21/2018)

38. DANISH
METEOROLOGICAL
INSTITUTE

40. SCIENCE OF DESIGN.

41. #endrainbow
Check out: https://betterfigures.org/2018/06/04/playing-hunt-the-discontinuity/

47. SCHNEIDER
AND
NOCKE,
2017

48. SCHNEIDER
AND
NOCKE,
2017

49. SCHNEIDER
AND
NOCKE,
2017

50. SCHNEIDER
AND
NOCKE,
2017

51. SCHNEIDER
AND
NOCKE,
2017

52. Adapted from Ed Hawkins at betterfigures.org

53. Crameri, F. (2018). Scientific colour maps.
Zenodo. http://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.1243862
Crameri, F. (2018), Geodynamic diagnostics, scientific
visualisation and StagLab 3.0, Geosci. Model Dev., 11, 2541-
2562, doi:1 0.5194/gmd-11-2541-2018
Crameri, F., G.E. Shephard, and P.J. Heron (2020), The
misuse of colour in science communication, Nature
Communications, 11, 5444. doi:10.1038/s41467-020-19160-7
Palettable:
Color palettes for Python

54. Crameri, F. (2018). Scientific colour maps.
Zenodo. http://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.1243862
Crameri, F. (2018), Geodynamic diagnostics, scientific
visualisation and StagLab 3.0, Geosci. Model Dev., 11, 2541-
2562, doi:1 0.5194/gmd-11-2541-2018
Crameri, F., G.E. Shephard, and P.J. Heron (2020), The
misuse of colour in science communication, Nature
Communications, 11, 5444. doi:10.1038/s41467-020-19160-7

55. OTHER OPTIONS
THYNG ET AL. 2016; OCEANOGRAPHY

56. CMOCEAN

57. CMASHER
“Scientific colormaps for making accessible,
informative and cmashing plots”

58. Adjusting axes (spines)

59. Changing font styles

60. https://github.com/zmlabe

61. 1. Seaborn.
2. Plotly.
3. ggplot.
4. Matplotlib v3.
ALTERNATIVES

62. 1. https://betterfigures.org/
2. https://www.climate-lab-book.ac.uk/
3. http://colorbrewer2.org/
RESOURCES

63. Future minus Pre-Industrial PEINGS ET AL. 2021, JCLI
Bring drama to your data story

64. 2-m
TEMPERATURE
Future minus Pre-Industrial PEINGS ET AL. 2021, JCLI

65. 2-m
TEMPERATURE
Future minus Pre-Industrial PEINGS ET AL. 2021, JCLI

66. 2-m
TEMPERATURE
Future minus Pre-Industrial PEINGS ET AL. 2021, JCLI

67. 2-m
TEMPERATURE
Future minus Pre-Industrial PEINGS ET AL. 2021, JCLI

68. 2-m
TEMPERATURE
Future minus Pre-Industrial PEINGS ET AL. 2021, JCLI

69. 2-m
TEMPERATURE
Future minus Pre-Industrial PEINGS ET AL. 2021, JCLI

70. 2-m
TEMPERATURE
Future minus Pre-Industrial PEINGS ET AL. 2021, JCLI

71. MAKING ACCESSIBLE
FIGURES.

72. ACCESSIBILITY

73. ACCESSIBILITY

74. ACCESSIBILITY

80. ACCESSIBILITY
No jargon
Tell a story
Alternative text
Color contrast ratio
Label data directly
Avoid flashing GIFs
Include figure titles
Avoid data overlays
Provide data references

81. VISUALIZING
GLOBAL
TEMPERATURE
CHANGE

83. PLOT BY ED HAWKINS

84. 2016 RIO OLYMPICS OPENING CEREMONY

87. PLOT BY ED HAWKINS
DON’T BE
SUCH A
SCIENTIST
WE ARE
DATA
SCIENTISTS

89. https://showyourstripes.info/
PLOT BY ED HAWKINS

90. CHECK:
Simple.
Bold.
Stories.
@ZLabe
Questions!
ZACHARY LABE | 20 JULY 2021 | REU PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT | COLORADO STATE UNIVERSITY