EVA WG:  Subgroup on Visualization Techniques
August 27, 2013

Participants:  Aritra Dasgupta, Steve Aulenbach, Yaxing Wei, Dan Ricciuto,  Christopher Schwalm, Enrico Boldrini, Anna Michalak, Bill Hargrove, 

 Debbie  Huntzinger, Claudio SIlva

not able to participate:  Forrest Hoffman

Agenda

1. Updates
2.  Vis techniques
3.  Next teleconference
4.  Other Topics

Notes from August 2, 2013 Teleconference
http://epad.dataone.org/2013-08-02-EVA-Telecon


Notes
1.  Updates -- Bob

 * Next EVA Working Group Meeting is October 22 - 24, 2013, Tamaya Hyatt Hotel, Santa Ana Pueblo, NM
   * Part of the DataONE All-Hands Meeting
     * EVA will  meet for 2 to 2.5 days
     * DataONE will have plenary sessions and poster / session reception
   * Logistics will be announced in next few weeks
   * Air and hotel reservations will be made by DataONE (RioGrande travel)
   * Travel expenses will be covered by DataONE 


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


2.  Vis Techniques -- Aritra 


   * One  part of this activity was to collect figures (maps, scatter plots, bar  charts, line plots) from the literature, critique the effectiveness of these plots, and develop a set of categories for the effectiveness. 
     * Maps
       * matrix of 17 North American images of model outputs
         * show spatial extent of the models and show the many ways the models are different
         * not just range or mean, but the spatial patterns of lows and highs
         * other figures in the paper show slices of these images
         * aesthetics:  thick lines, outline of continent, background (green and purple (too close to the color bar)
           * lots of room for improvement in aesthetics
       * color choices (get rid of rainbow); different scales is a hindrance;  move units next to color bar, 
       * Maps have their own advantages, hard to replace
     * Scatter Plots
       * for Figure from Debbie's figure, use lines and give each "outlier" model a symbol to indicate which model 
         * need to define what an "outlier"
         * within a paper, it would be good to use a common format for each figure (always have GPP on top).  Having one different (cf. slide 7) then it may be hard to carry information from one slide to the next.
       * Ozone figure:  remove individual model points and retain just the line to remove clutter
         * but keep each individual observations
         * 
     * Line Charts

   * The  other part of this activity is to 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.

    Examples
        Scatterplots
        Maps


3.  Next Teleconference
    will do a Doodle Poll