R Script to Build Animation of Arctic Sea Ice Extent – Update 9/3/12

In my previous post I showed an animation of Arctic Sea Ice Extent from the 1980′s through August, 2012 (link).  In this post, I show how to build this Arctic Sea ice Extent  animated chart.

Source Data

The Arctic Ice Sea Monitor (link)   updates their daily csv file with the latest satellite based arctic sea ice measurements.  Here is the daily csv file link.

R script

To develop my animation of the daily Arctic Sea Ice extent, I decided to produce a plot for each year that showed the current year in red and the previous years in grey.  I go this idea from Tamino at Open Mind.

Here is my R script: link.

Once I have the individual png files for each year, I use Photoshop Elements to generate my animation.

After getting Pierre’s comment about using the animation package, I gave it another try. The 2nd time,  I got it to work with ease.

I can now update the daily ASIE plot automatically without any Photoshop Elements involvement.

Thanks Pierre.

LearnR Toolkit To Help Excel Users Move Up To R

As a former  Excel chart user, I want to help current Excel users make the transition to more advanced charting R with as little difficulty as possible. This post introduces my LearnR Toolkit to help Excel users move up to R in a systematic, step by step fashion.

Introduction

As an Excel chart user, I wanted to produce panel charts like this:

Learn R Toolkit Update

My Learn R Toolkit went on-line in April, 2009. I’m happy to announce that the 10,000th  file download benchmark was reached on October 30.

Here are a few comments that Learn R Toolkit users have submitted:

• “… I think your instructional material is simply excellent. Your explanations are uncomplicated, unhurried and clear.”

• “I’ve enjoyed your R tutorial series. Thank you. It was worth the $19.”

• “You’ve given me some fishing poles to catch what I want to catch.”

• “Your tutorials are a good starting point for learning about R. I’m interested in manipulating data … and find myself referencing your tutorials on different issues.”
  

The first 3 modules are free, so be sure  to check out my Learn R Toolkit for yourself.

Learn R Toolkit Videos

My list of free Learn R Toolkit videos is growing. Here’s the latest list of free videos:

• Get Familiar with R
• Download & Install R
• Configure Working Directory – Set Start-in Folder
• Example R Session
• Getting R Help
• R Packages
• Compare R and Excel Worlds
• Missing Data – R and Excel

Modules 3-6 of the toolkit includes video training, working R scripts and data files to get you started writing R chart scripts in less than a day. Modules 3 – 6 are available for $19 with my  money back guarantee.

So there’s no reason for you to put off learning R. You now have a risk free way to start using R  for your advanced charts.