CO2 and Temperature Trends

In a previous post I discussed problems with an Excel based CO2 and temperature trend chart that used 2 Y axes. Double axis charts can be misleading because they may distort the Y axis for one of the series.

In this post I show another example of am ineffective double Y axis CO2 and temperature trend chart and present 2 alternative ways to show the same data more effectively. Links to my  R scripts and Google spreadsheet based data file are included.

Temperature Anomaly Data Displays

Is there a single “best” way to display temperature anomaly data? The answer is obvious – NO! The best display depends on what we are trying to show.  Statistical charts compare one variable with one or more other variables.

Since our display option affects how we interpret the data, it is important to be clear on what we are comparing. In this post I want to show 3 ways to display temperature anomaly data and the implications that the display method has on our interpretation of the data. I’ll use a map, a trend chart and a dot plot.

Interesting Data Tools: Tinkerplots

There are many data analysis and charting tools that Excel users should check out to see what is available in the world outside Excel. I’ll be posting about interesting tools that I find and/or readers tell me about.  Here’s my first – Tinkerplots

SAS – JMP 8’s Interactive Panel Chart Video

One of my ProcessTrends.Com readers, Andrew, sent me a link to a SAS – JMP 8 video on panel charts. I checked it out and was impressed.

Here’s the link.  The 1 min 41 sec  video gives you a good idea of what JMP can do to interactively make panel charts.  If you are an Excel user, be sure to check it out to see what capabilities you are missing.

http://www.jmp.com/software/jmp8/demos/sall_graphbuilder.shtml

What do you think?  Any chance that Microsoft will see the light and make Excel a real analysis tool?