This document discusses improving science communication through data visualization. It provides examples of data visualizations created by Zachary Labe and other scientists to communicate climate change information more effectively. These visualizations use tools like maps, line graphs and color to tell stories with data on topics like rising global temperatures, sea level rise and glacier decline. The document also discusses best practices for data visualization, including using accurate and accessible colors, fonts and designs to clearly convey scientific concepts and findings.

1. IMPROVING SCIENCE (COMMUNICATION)
THROUGH DATA VISUALIZATION
ZACHARY LABE | 10 MARCH 2021 | COLORADO STATE UNIVERSITY
@ZLabe

4. Warmer
Colder
NOW
Start of
satellite-era

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

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

7. 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
“
”

8. Jill Pelto|https://time.com/5864356/one-last-chance-time-cover/
“
”
“It has been a tumultuous year, but
underlying currents of positive action
are surfacing rapidly,” says Pelto,
whose watercolor and colored pencil
piece is titled Currents. “It depicts a
critical grouping of global climate
data dictating our present and future
action. The reality of this data may be
frightening, but there are messages
for hope within.”

9. DATA VISUALIZATION
IS STORY-TELLING

11. [TWEET]: By looking at changes in air temperature over just
one day, you can see contributions from a variety of Earth
systems: land surface feedbacks, effects of land vs. water
(oceans, lakes, rivers), topography (mountains), heat
transport from storms, the diurnal cycle, etc.

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

13. REFLECTION.

14. LABE
ET
AL.
2017,
CLIMATE
DYNAMICS

15. My first map subplot?

16. Arctic sea ice thickness variability
and the atmospheric circulation
Zachary M. Labe
Gudrun Magnusdottir
2 June 2016

18. BEGINNING WITH
OUR DATA.

24. LINE GRAPHS
Temperature
Anomaly
(°C)

30. :)

34. MAP PLOTS

35. YIKES – COLOR!

36. YIKES – THE FONT!

37. YIKES – SOFTEN COASTLINES!

38. YIKES – FIRE IN THE ARCTIC!

39. OKAY – MINOR DETAILS

40. :)

41. MAP PLOTS

42. YIKES!

43. YIKES – FONT IS BLEH!

44. YIKES – COLOR!

45. MAP PROJECTION!

46. :)

47. HAVE FUN!

54. OH NO!

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

59. DANISH
METEOROLOGICAL
INSTITUTE

61. VISUAL DESIGN.

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

63. EGU 2018 Conference https://betterfigures.org/

69. SCHNEIDER
AND
NOCKE,
2017

70. SCHNEIDER
AND
NOCKE,
2017

71. SCHNEIDER
AND
NOCKE,
2017

72. SCHNEIDER
AND
NOCKE,
2017

73. SCHNEIDER
AND
NOCKE,
2017

74. SEQUENTIAL

75. QUALITATIVE

76. DIVERGING

77. Adapted from Ed Hawkins at betterfigures.org

78. 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

79. 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

80. BY FABIO CRAMERI

81. BY FABIO CRAMERI

82. OTHER OPTIONS
THYNG ET AL. 2016; OCEANOGRAPHY

83. CMOCEAN

84. Adjusting axes (spines)

85. Changing font styles

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

87. LABE
ET
AL.
2019,
GRL
Bring drama to your data story

88. LABE ET AL. 2019, GRL

89. LABE ET AL. 2019, GRL
STRONGER
POLAR VORTEX
Zonal wind
at 10 hPa
Geopotential
at 30 hPa

90. WEAKER
POLAR VORTEX
Zonal wind
at 10 hPa
Geopotential
at 30 hPa
LABE ET AL. 2019, GRL

91. 2-m
TEMPERATURE
Future minus Pre-Industrial PEINGS ET AL. 2021, JCLI

92. 2-m
TEMPERATURE
Future minus Pre-Industrial PEINGS ET AL. 2021, JCLI

93. 2-m
TEMPERATURE
Future minus Pre-Industrial PEINGS ET AL. 2021, JCLI

94. 2-m
TEMPERATURE
Future minus Pre-Industrial PEINGS ET AL. 2021, JCLI

95. 2-m
TEMPERATURE
Future minus Pre-Industrial PEINGS ET AL. 2021, JCLI

96. 2-m
TEMPERATURE
Future minus Pre-Industrial PEINGS ET AL. 2021, JCLI

97. 2-m
TEMPERATURE
Future minus Pre-Industrial PEINGS ET AL. 2021, JCLI

98. ACCESSIBILITY

99. ACCESSIBILITY

100. ACCESSIBILITY

105. 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

106. VISUALIZING
GLOBAL
TEMPERATURE
CHANGE

109. PLOT BY ED HAWKINS

110. 2016 RIO OLYMPICS OPENING CEREMONY

112. PLOT BY ED HAWKINS

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

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

116. https://www.zazzle.com/store/climate_visuals

117. COLORADO

118. PLOT BY ED HAWKINS

121. PLOT BY NEIL KAYE

123. PLOT BY NASA EARTH OBSERVATORY
JOSHUA STEVENS

125. OPEN SCIENCE

126. GROWING DATA

128. GROWING TOOLS

131. Today’s weather or climate
scientist is far more likely to be
debugging code written in
Python… than to be poring over
satellite images or releasing
radiosondes.
“
D. Irving| Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society| 2016

132. D. Irving| Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society| 2016

133. Behind every library

135. So what can
we do?

136. WHY
Transparency
Reproducibility
Code-sharing
Innovation
Open-science
Climate science
needs this!
Growing software
communities
Share our cool
science and
inspire!
The future of big
data
Is there a crisis in
science?

137. CHECK:
Simple.
Visual.
Storytelling.
@ZLabe
ZACHARY LABE | 10 MARCH 2021 | COLORADO STATE UNIVERSITY
Questions!