Logan Jones, Alexander Schad, Sina Soltanieh
Service-Learning Course Project as part of DS 4200 F20: Information Visualization, taught by Prof. Cody Dunne, Data Visualization @ Khoury, Northeastern University.
The El Niño Southern-Oscillation (ENSO) is a Pacific Ocean sea-surface temperature (SST) cycle that has long been known for its strong influence on global weather. Although localized to the Pacific Ocean, its effects can be seen across the globe, with notable effects around the Mississippi River Basin (MRB). This project allows users to explore the connections between ENSO and weather conditions in the MRB. Users can:
The visualization contains four views, one in each quadrant with a slider bar in between. The top left features the line graph, the bottom left is the ONI chart, the top right is the MRB map, while the bottom left is the SST. In the ONI chart, red represents El Niño (warm waters) while blue represents La Niña (cooler waters). In general, low-saturated colors were chosen to be easier on the eyes. The main method to interact with this visualization, other than details on demand for points in all four views, is through the time-series slider bar. Each discrete tick on the slider bar represents a month between 2018 and 2019. Moving and releasing the slider bar updates the monthly averages for points on the map views. Above the line chart, radio buttons make it easy for users to switch between soil moisture, precipitation, and discharge data, which updates both the line chart and the Mississippi River Basin map views to display data for the selected measure.