The new Visualization Tool allows you to:

• See which species and locations are data-rich
• Find patterns like the relationship between spring temperature and the timing of flowering
• Answer questions such as "Did my poppies flower earlier or later this year compared to last year? "
• See how the Accumulated Growing Degree Days for this year match up to a long-term average
• Compare the predicted onset of spring for this year to other years, and map observations from Nature's Notebook against these predictions

Step 1: Filter data by year, species, and/or partner group that collected the observations

Step 2: Select data geographically by selecting layers (optional)

Step 3: Visualize data with a scatter plot (showing the relationship between two sets of data), calendar (showing annual timing of phenophase activity), or map (showing ground-based observations against phenology maps of Accumulated Growing Degree Days and Spring Index models) 

Step 4: Share a link to the map you have created, or download the dataset you have filtered. 

Visualization Tool Tutorial:

Menus

On the left side of the visualization tool is a series of expandable menus. You can use these tools to manipulate the data.

	Filter Menu	Set date ranges, or search for data by a number of other variables such as partner group or species.
	Boundary Layers Menu	Overlay regional borders on the map, and select data geographically.
	Visualization Menu	Load filtered data into various visualizations. See below for more details.
	Settings Menu	Control application settings such as how to display sites, and whether or not to include less precise data for some visualizations.
	Gridded Layer Menu	Display spatial and temeral patterns in temperature and predicted phenology via Spring Index and Accumulated Growing Degree Day maps

Site Markers

View all sites registered with Nature's Notebook. Depending on the settings you choose, the number of phenophase status records or the number of sites will be displayed. 

	State Count Markers	When opening the tool, you will see an overlay of the United States, each with a marker in the center of the state. This number indicates the number of sites at which observations have been made.
	Grouped Markers	The tool will group observation sites by geographic area. If you apply a filter to the map and click on a state to expand the view of its locations, you can see the data "clustered" as in the picture at left. The number in the circle is the number of status records in that area. In the Settings Menu, you can choose to instead show the number of sites or to turn off clustering altogether.
	Site Markers	Zooming into the map far enough will show individual sites (circled in red in the picture at left). Clicking on a site provides some additional details about that site. The intensity of color (light to dark) of the marker indicates the density of the data at that site. Mousing over the locaton also shows a scale indicating the relative density of the data compared to other sites displayed on the map.

Visualizations

Once you have filtered the data by years, species and areas of interest, you can visualize the data in multiple ways. 

	Scatter Plots	This visualization plots selected geographic or climactic variables against estimated onset dates for individuals for up to three species/phenophase combinations.
	Calendars	This visualization illustrates annual timing of phenophase activity for selected species/phenophase combinations. Horizontal bars represent phenological activity for up to two years for selected sites. The colored bars represent observed presence of the phenophase. If you choose to display negative data, gray bars represent the observed absence of the phenophase.
	Maps	This visualization maps ground-based observations against USA-NPN phenology maps, including Accumulated Growing Degree Days and Spring Index models.

Scatter Plot Dependent Variable Definitions

Onset DOY: The first day of year (a calendar date between 1 and 366) that the phenophase was observed as occurring on an individual at a site.  

Scatter Plot Independent Variable Definitions

Precipitation and temperature data (described below) are derived from Daymet.

Thornton, P.E., M.M. Thornton, B.W. Mayer, N. Wilhelmi, Y. Wei, R. Devarakonda, and   R.B. Cook. 2014. Daymet: Daily Surface Weather Data on a 1-km Grid for North   America, Version 2. Data set. Available on-line [http://daac.ornl.gov] from Oak Ridge National Laboratory Distributed Active Archive Center, Oak Ridge, Tennessee, USA. Date accessed: 2015/06/01-Present. Temporal range: 2008/01/01-present. Spatial range: N=52.00, S=14.53.DD, E=52.95, W=131.10. http://dx.doi.org/10.3334/ORNLDAAC/1219.

Latitude: The latitude of the site at which the target individual and phenophase was observed.

Longitude: The longitude of the site at which the target individual and phenophase was observed.

Elevation (m): The elevation of the site at which the target individual and phenophase was observed.

Year: Year of the Onset DOY.

Precip Fall (mm): Accumulated precipitation for the previous year's fall season, relative to the year of the Onset DOY (September-November).

Precip Spring (mm): Accumulated precipitation for the year of Onset DOY spring season (March-May).

Precip Spring (mm): Accumulated precipitation for the year of Onset DOY summer season (June-August).

Precip Winter (mm): Accumulated precipitation for year of Onset DOY winter season (December of previous year-February of onset DOY year).

T_max Fall (^oC): Average maximum temperature for the previous year's fall season, relative to the year of the onset DOY (September-November). 

T_max Spring (^oC): Average maximum temperature for the year of Onset DOY spring season (March-May).

T_max Summer (^oC): Average maximum temperature for the year of onset DOY summer season (June-August).

T_max Winter (^oC): Average maximum temperature for the year of Onset DOY winter season (December of previous year-February of onset DOY year).

T_min Fall (^oC): Average minimum temperature for the previous year's fall season, relative to the year of the Onset DOY (September-November). 

T_min Spring (^oC): Average minimum temperature for the year of Onset DOY spring season (March-May).

T_min Summer (^oC): Average minimum temperature for the year of Onset DOY summer season (June-August).

T_min Winter (^oC): Average minimum temperature for the year of Onset DOY winter season (December of previous year-February of onset DOY year).

Daylength (s): Number of seconds of daylight for Onset DOY.

Accumulated Precip (mm): Accumulated precipitation for the Onset DOY, beginning January 1st. 

GDD: Growing Degree Days, i.e. accumulated maximum temperature when T_max > 0^oC for Onset DOY.

Additional Settings

Cluster Markers: After selecting a filter all sites with applicable data are plotted on the map. Using this setting you can toggle between viewing those sites as clustered groups or having all sites plotted on the map at once. Default is to cluster.

Variable Displayed: Allows you to define which variables are counted and displayed on the maps. This affects both the site clusters as well as the filter tags. You can choose between displaying the number of phenophase status records or the number of sites.

Species Tag Title: Allows you to toggle between common names or scientific names throughout the visualization tool.

Exclude less precise data from visualizations: This setting affects which observation data are used in scatter plot visualizations. For selected species/phenophase combinations, each individual within a defined geographic area is plotted for each selected calendar year. Onset date is calculated as the first date of the calendar year where the presence of the phenophase had been reported (ie. the first “yes” record). Configuring this setting to "yes" excludes individual onset dates which do not have a "no" record preceding the "yes" within the calendar year for display on the scatterplot. If there is a "no" record preceding this first "yes", then the number of days between those records can be used to determine uncertainty in the true onset date.