BYLINE: Marguerite Huber
Newswise — Imagine having to get work done but not being able to visually process the data right in front of you. Nearly eight percent of genetic males and half a percent of genetic females have some form of color vision deficiency (CVD), which is a reduced ability to distinguish certain colors. CVD is commonly referred to as color blindness.
Scientists use color to convey information. Many scientists in the weather radar community suffer from cardiovascular disease and the use and interpretation of color is an important aspect of their work. Most color maps do not take into account people with cardiovascular disease. For example, green is shown next to red on the maps.
“Radar meteorology is a uniquely visual science. Scientists can see the shape in the storm that indicates strong winds or a tornado. That’s why color maps are so important to our community.” – Scott Collis, Argonne atmospheric scientist and co-author of the article
Researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory recently published a paper in the Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society detailing their work to create CVD-friendly color maps that highlight important features of clouds and precipitation.
The creation of new maps demonstrates the programming community’s commitment to inclusivity
A type of color map, Ze, shows radar reflectance or storm intensity. The higher the reflectance factor, the higher the likelihood of rain, hail, and more. In general, the higher the Ze value, the higher the likelihood of public impacts. These color maps are most commonly seen by the public in local weather forecasts.
Some color maps, such as Ze, make it difficult for people with cardiovascular disease to distinguish between different types of precipitation and convection. Convection is the transport of heat and moisture by the movement of a fluid. Thunderstorms are a form of convection.
Another problem with current color tables is that they are not perceptually uniform. Perceptually uniform is when changes in color (brightness or color) and data values are given equal weight and do not create an artificial structure.
As the scientists engaged with the community, they realized they needed to better represent the data. Their work focused on finding the right color representation that was both CVD-friendly and good for the radar community. The researchers used this knowledge and created CVD-friendly Ze and velocity color maps using the tools of the Python programming language. They gave everything its own color, from drizzle to rain to hail. Velocity color maps were also tested against an existing oceanographic map.
“The Python programming community is striving for inclusivity,” said Scott Collis, an atmospheric scientist at Argonne and co-author of the paper. ”And there was this push from users to make color maps more accessible.”
Once testing is complete and the maps are released, they will have a longer-term impact thanks to next-generation meteorologists
The new and existing color maps were tested during various weather events using software that visualized the data from the perspective of a person with CVD. Comparisons were then made available to the CVD community to gather their input and feedback. Overall, the radar researchers in the focus group agreed that the new color maps were more interpretable than the standard color maps currently in use.
This research was supported by the Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) User Facility, a user facility of the DOE Office of Science.
“ARM enables great science, visualizations, and tools that are open to the community,” said Collis. ”None of this would be possible without ARM, and ARM data, tools, and software are more powerful in implementing open science.”
The new color maps are now available in a GitHub repository used by various open source radar software packages from the Open Radar community.
To further engage the CVD community, the authors presented their color maps at major scientific conferences around the world. The community provided feedback, tested color maps, and helped build the library.
“Now that we have better color maps, we know from the community that they are relevant and inclusive,” said co-author and Argonne Systems Integration Administrator Zachary Sherman. ”People have the choice to be colorblind friendly.”
Some of the authors have experienced first-hand the impact their color maps have had on people with cardiovascular disease. Everyone from students to conference chairs have expressed gratitude for the color maps they could finally understand. Providing these cardiovascular-friendly color maps allows for equitable scientific visualization and inclusivity.
In the future, the research team plans to develop more color charts and intensify outreach efforts. Their goal is to build a community practice around the world.
“Radar meteorology is a uniquely visual science,” Collis said. “Scientists can see the shape in the storm that indicates strong winds or a tornado. That’s why color maps are so important to our community.”
Ultimately, it is not just members of the radar community who will benefit from CVD-friendly color maps. The job profile of future meteorologists is changing. When prospective students graduate, they will only work with radar meteorology tools that offer CVD-friendly color maps. This type of color map will be the norm for the next class of meteorologists.
Then, as they take on roles on local television, they will begin to bring color charts to the general public in the form of weather reports. So one day in the near future, the general population with cardiovascular disease will be able to look at the morning weather forecast and see for the first time what a color chart should actually look like.
