This document discusses the effective use of data visualization for science communication. It provides examples of climate change visualizations, such as Ed Hawkins' striking strip plot of global temperature anomalies over time. The document emphasizes telling stories with data and using best practices for accessibility. It also advocates for open science through sharing code, data, and growing software tools to enable transparency and reproducibility in climate research.

1. USING DATA VISUALIZATION
FOR EFFECTIVE SCIENCE
(COMMUNICATION)
ZACHARY LABE | 5 MAY 2021 | ATS 655 | LECTURE 43 | 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. Q: What are your
favorite visualizations of
climate change data?

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

10. DATA VISUALIZATION
IS STORY-TELLING.

11. 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
“
”

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

13. Q: What are your
worst figures?

14. LABE
ET
AL.
2017,
CLIMATE
DYNAMICS

15. My first map subplot?

16. My first-year practicum presentation!

17. BEGINNING WITH
OUR DATA.

19. LINE GRAPHS

25. :)

29. MAP PLOTS

30. YIKES!

31. YIKES – FONT IS BLEH!

32. YIKES – COLOR!

33. MAP PROJECTION!

34. :)

35. HAVE FUN!

42. SURPRISINGLY EFFECTIVE.

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

44. DANISH
METEOROLOGICAL
INSTITUTE

46. SCIENCE OF DESIGN.

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

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

54. SCHNEIDER
AND
NOCKE,
2017

55. SCHNEIDER
AND
NOCKE,
2017

56. SCHNEIDER
AND
NOCKE,
2017

57. SCHNEIDER
AND
NOCKE,
2017

58. SCHNEIDER
AND
NOCKE,
2017

59. 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

60. 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

61. BY FABIO CRAMERI

62. BY FABIO CRAMERI

63. OTHER OPTIONS
THYNG ET AL. 2016; OCEANOGRAPHY

64. CMOCEAN

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

66. Adjusting axes (spines)

67. Changing font styles

68. https://github.com/zmlabe

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

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

71. LABE ET AL. 2019, GRL

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

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

74. 2-m
TEMPERATURE
Future minus Pre-Industrial PEINGS ET AL. 2021, JCLI

75. 2-m
TEMPERATURE
Future minus Pre-Industrial PEINGS ET AL. 2021, JCLI

76. 2-m
TEMPERATURE
Future minus Pre-Industrial PEINGS ET AL. 2021, JCLI

77. 2-m
TEMPERATURE
Future minus Pre-Industrial PEINGS ET AL. 2021, JCLI

78. 2-m
TEMPERATURE
Future minus Pre-Industrial PEINGS ET AL. 2021, JCLI

79. 2-m
TEMPERATURE
Future minus Pre-Industrial PEINGS ET AL. 2021, JCLI

80. 2-m
TEMPERATURE
Future minus Pre-Industrial PEINGS ET AL. 2021, JCLI

82. ACCESSIBILITY

83. ACCESSIBILITY

84. ACCESSIBILITY

89. 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

90. Q: What are the most
recognizable graphs of
climate change data?

91. VISUALIZING
GLOBAL
TEMPERATURE
CHANGE

93. PLOT BY ED HAWKINS

94. 2016 RIO OLYMPICS OPENING CEREMONY

96. PLOT BY ED HAWKINS

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

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

100. Q: Do you reference your
coding & data?

101. OPEN SCIENCE

102. GROWING DATA

104. GROWING TOOLS

107. 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

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

109. Behind every library

112. So what can
we do?

113. 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?

114. CHECK:
Simple.
Bold.
Stories.
@ZLabe
Questions!
ZACHARY LABE | 5 MAY 2021 | ATS 655 | LECTURE 43 | COLORADO STATE UNIVERSITY