EVA WG:  Subgroup on Visualization Techniques
August 2, 2013

Participants: Aritra Dasgupta, Steve Aulenbach, Yaxing Wei, Dan Ricciuto, Claudio Silva,  Forrest Hoffman, Bill Hargrove, and Anna Michalak, Debbie Huntzinger, 

not able to participate:   Chrisopher Schwalm,

Teleconference:  
Toll Free Number:  866-703-9626 
Pass Code:  767574 

WebEx:  
https://edss.webex.com/edss/j.php?ED=228797252&UID=1629826952&PW=NM2YzMDQzMDgx&RT=MiMxMQ%3D%3D 
Password:  20130802


Agenda

1.  Update on EVA activities
2.  Visualization Techniques
3.  other topics
4.  next teleconference


Notes
1.  Update on EVA Activities

• Next EVA Working Group Meeting is October 22 - 24, 2013, Albuquerque, NM
  • Travel will be covered by DataONE 
  • Logistics will be announced in next few weeks
    
    
• Integrated Model Intercomparison  Framework - Yaxing

    Download VisTrails Package: https://github.com/yaxingwei/imif
    Download VisTrails Package Help Docs: https://github.com/yaxingwei/imif-doc

• VisTrails Modules Development 
  • DataONE Summer Intern, Fei Du, Univ. of Wisconsin
  • 4 groups, 24 modules, including modules developed this year and last year (by Jorge Poco)
• UV-CDAT Development 
  • Aritra Dasgupta,  DataONE Post-Doc
  • Building functionality of visualizing complex multidimensional data within UV-CDAT.  Multidimensional data includes multiple variables (primary production, biomass, nitrogen sources) on maps (lat, long), over time.  The functionality includes parallel coordinates, multi-projection plots, stacked bar charts, heat maps, and bubble plots etc.  
    
    
• Similarity - Aritra
• for those who can attend, we will have a call on Tuesday, August 6 at 2 pm EDT
  • visualization-enabled analysis of climate model similarity, addressing the question are results from different models (or models and observations) similar.  The approach in this activity is to use multidimensional projections / dimensionality reduction algorithms to understand similarity and investigate in detail, why, where, and when models are similar.
    
    

2.  Visualization Techniques

• One part of this activity was to collect figures (maps, scatter plots, bar charts, line plots) from the literature and critique the effectiveness of these plots. See  URLs:
  • Maps:
    • https://docs.google.com/forms/d/128_rxkhsVsF2C3n1osZKrHuMxls62J55ek4BzF6cn4o/viewform
    • https://docs.google.com/forms/d/128_rxkhsVsF2C3n1osZKrHuMxls62J55ek4BzF6cn4o/viewanalytics
      
      
  • Scatter Plots
    • https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1Uu0as_-VqpwqUnyIrAhxM93lvmdCTx6Bz1uldXDvJ9g/viewform
    • https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1Uu0as_-VqpwqUnyIrAhxM93lvmdCTx6Bz1uldXDvJ9g/viewanalytics
      
      
  • Line Charts
    • https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1Z0FQB4OYt4QchTB0BKFTr9paw0DegA3CMbkp2_4muEM/viewform
    • https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1Z0FQB4OYt4QchTB0BKFTr9paw0DegA3CMbkp2_4muEM/viewanalytics
      
      
• The other part of this activity is to have the EVA WG (researchers and visualization experts) pick representative visualizations and develop alternative methods for visualizing the data.  
• Ultimately the group will develop a set of best practices for visualizing complex data.
• 
  
  
  

Some notes on map reviews
MapD2: 
- spatial distribution of model GPP mean and spread
- links between magnitude of GPP and its spread

MapU3:
- one model two different variables
- 

MapMorton2
- compare temporal correlation betwee BA with different climate drivers
- link different maps together


alternative structure of this survey
    blind survey
    ask the originator to describe their intent and the specific set of conclusions
    ask a group of researchers the same thing:  general and specific intent of the visualization
    compare originator's and the group's responses
    need to have the originators provide the general and specific and then compare the group of researchers 

The responses to the current survey is helpful to create a category/taxonomy of visuliazation intents (or usages). Combined this survey with some "blind survey", we will be able to achieve the purpose of "taxonomy of design problems"


4.  next teleconference
 
options:
 
Tuesday, August 27, 2013
 
Wednesday, August 28
 
Thursday, August 29


DataONE EVA pbWiki: http://dataoneeva.pbworks.com