Chris Parmer — home

Compendium of Canonical Charts: Honorable Mentions

I'm keeping track of my favorite domain-specific charts in this Compendium of Canonical Charts.

This page contains the ones that didn't quite make the cut. They are all domain specific, but not as interesting visually as the other charts. You'll see a lot of line charts with a specific name here. And some that just don't have enough color or variety for my main hall of fame.

Still great charts, though, and interesting data too.

Enjoy

Bland-Altman Plot (Laboratory Medicine)

OxfordIHTM/teaching_datasets · ba.dat · Bland & Altman (1986) peak flow meter comparison · Code

Bland-Altman plot comparing two peak flow meters with limits of agreement

Radar Chart (Sports Analytics)

NocturneBear/NBA-Data-2010-2024 · regular season team game totals · Code

NBA radar chart comparing team statistics across multiple dimensions

Load-Duration Curve (Power Systems)

EIA-930 Grid Monitor Balance Jan–Jun 2024 · Code

Load-duration curve for California ISO showing hourly demand sorted in descending order, with peak, median, and baseload annotated, for January through June 2024.

Hydrograph (Hydrology)

USGS Water Services, Potomac at Little Falls (01646500), 2023 · Code

Annual streamflow hydrograph for the Potomac River at Little Falls on a log scale, showing daily mean discharge in cubic feet per second across 2023 with the spring freshet peak annotated.

Mortality Curve (Actuarial)

Rdatasets — dslabs::death_prob (US annual probability of death by age and sex) · Code

Log-scale line chart of annual probability of death by age for males and females, annotating the accident hump in young adulthood, childhood trough, and senescence rise

S-Curve / Earned Value (Project Controls)

Plotly sample datasets — GanttChart.csv · Code

Three cumulative S-curves for Planned Value, Earned Value, and Actual Cost over a project timeline, illustrating schedule and cost variance

Shear & Moment Diagram (Structural Engineering)

Computed — simply-supported beam, UDL (no external dataset) · Code

Two-panel subplot showing the shear force diagram and bending moment diagram for a simply-supported 6-metre beam under a 5 kN/m uniform distributed load

Process-Capability Histogram (Manufacturing)

NIST Engineering Statistics Handbook — MPC61 resistivity dataset · Code

Histogram of resistivity measurements with a fitted normal curve overlaid and LSL/USL spec limits marked, annotated with Cp and Cpk capability indices

Growing-Degree-Day Accumulation (Agronomy)

Open-Meteo historical weather (Champaign-Urbana, 2021-2023) · Code

Cumulative growing-degree-day accumulation for corn near Champaign IL for 2021, 2022, and 2023 seasons, with a horizontal line at 2700 GDU maturity threshold

Volatility Surface (Options)

yfinance (SPY option chain, 12 expiries) · Code

3D surface chart of SPY implied volatility across strike prices and days-to-expiry, colored with Viridis showing the volatility smile and term structure

Futures Term Structure (Commodities)

Synthetic (yfinance deferred CL contracts unavailable) · Code

Line chart of WTI crude oil futures prices across contract months from spot through March 2026, annotated to show contango or backwardation

Fan Chart (Macro)

FRED (CPIAUCSL monthly CPI, St. Louis Fed) · Code

Fan chart of US CPI year-over-year inflation showing five years of history as a violet line, then 24 months of forecast with expanding 50/80/90 percent confidence bands and a 2 percent Fed target reference line

Returns Seasonality Heatmap (Funds)

yfinance (SPY 20-year monthly returns) · Code

Red-yellow-green heatmap of SPY monthly returns by year (rows) and calendar month (columns) over 20 years, with each cell annotated with the percentage return

Nyquist Plot (Control Systems)

scipy.signal computed · Code

Nyquist plot for L(s)=1/(s(s+1)(s+2)): forward locus (violet) and mirror (teal dashed) in the complex plane, red X marks critical point (−1, 0)

Root Locus (Control Systems)

numpy.roots computed · Code

Root locus for 1/(s(s+1)(s+2)): closed-loop poles colored by gain K (Viridis), open-loop poles marked as red X, imaginary-axis crossings at ±j√2 (K≈6) marked as orange circles

Pole-Zero Plot (Control Systems)

scipy.signal computed · Code

Two-panel pole-zero plot: s-plane (closed-loop at K=6, poles on imaginary axis at ±j√2) and z-plane (2nd-order Butterworth digital filter with unit circle)

3D Surface (Scientific Computing)

Van der Waals equation of state for CO₂ · P = RT/(V−b) − a/V² · a = 3.658 L²·atm/mol², b = 0.04286 L/mol · Code

3D surface plot of the Van der Waals P-V-T surface for CO₂, colored by temperature from teal (250 K) to pink (420 K), with critical point marked in white

Shmoo Plot (Chip Test)

Computed — Fmax(V) model (no public shmoo data) · Code

Pass/fail heatmap in voltage (V) × frequency (GHz) space; green region shows operating window, dashed white line marks Fmax boundary

MOSFET I-V Curves (Device Characterization)

Computed — SPICE Level-1 square-law model · Code

MOSFET drain-current vs drain-voltage curves for 8 gate voltages (1.5–5.0 V); dotted line separates triode and saturation regions

Stress-Strain Curve (Mechanical Engineering)

ProfessorKazarinoff AISI 1018 tensile data · Code

Engineering stress-strain curve for AISI 1018 steel up to 3% strain (extensometer range), with 0.2% offset yield line and UTS marker at ~661 MPa

S-N Fatigue Curve (Mechanical Engineering)

avakanski Ti alloy fatigue dataset (220 tests) · Code

S-N fatigue scatter plot for titanium alloys (220 data points): stress amplitude vs cycles to failure on log x-axis, with power-law fit and runout markers

Light Curve / Transit (Astronomy)

lightkurve test data (Kepler K2 photometry) · Code

Scatter plot of Kepler light curve showing corrected flux vs time in BJD-2454833 days, revealing periodic transit dips

Rank-Abundance (Whittaker) Plot (Ecology)

Weecology Portal Teaching DB · Code

Log-scale rank-abundance plot of small mammal captures at Portal, AZ; top 5 species labeled with species ID codes

Species-Accumulation Curve (Ecology)

Weecology Portal Teaching DB · Code

Species-accumulation curve showing cumulative species richness vs cumulative individuals sampled; curve flattens toward asymptote around 25 species

Dose-Response Curve (Pharmacology)

R drc package — ryegrass dataset · Code

Scatter plot of ferulic acid concentration vs ryegrass root length with fitted 4-parameter log-logistic curve and EC50 annotation

Q-Q Plot (Statistics)

R datasets — Old Faithful geyser · Code

Normal Q-Q plot of Old Faithful waiting times showing departure from normality due to bimodal distribution; dashed reference line through Q1-Q3

Chromatogram (Analytical Chemistry)

cremerlab/hplc-py test data · Code

Chromatogram showing detector signal (mAU) vs retention time (min) with three annotated peaks

Arrhenius Plot (Chemical Kinetics)

Hecht-Conrad 1889 published values · Code

Arrhenius plot of ln(rate) vs 1/T with linear fit showing activation energy of ~76 kJ/mol

Mass Spectrum (Mass Spectrometry)

MassBank MSBNK-EAWAG-EC001501 · Code

Mass spectrum stick plot showing relative intensity (%) vs m/z with base peak at 299.23 annotated

Michaelis-Menten Plot (Biochemistry)

R datasets — Puromycin · Code

Michaelis-Menten plot of enzyme rate vs substrate concentration for treated and untreated conditions with fitted hyperbolas and Vmax/Km annotations

Invariant-Mass Bump (Particle Physics)

CMS Open Data — Synthetic (J/ψ, Υ, Z resonances over combinatorial background) · Code

Log-log histogram of dimuon invariant mass from 0.3 to 120 GeV showing exponential combinatorial background with visible resonance bumps annotated at J/psi (3.10 GeV), Upsilon-1S (9.46 GeV), and Z boson (91.2 GeV)

CMB Power Spectrum (Cosmology)

Planck 2018 (ESA) · Code

CMB temperature power spectrum Dl vs multipole ell from 48 to 2499, showing the characteristic sequence of acoustic peaks with the first peak near ell=220 annotated, scatter points with error bars overlaid on the LCDM best-fit theory curve

Seismogram (Seismology)

ObsPy TSPAIR sample data · Code

Seismogram trace showing amplitude in counts versus time in seconds over a 15.8-second window at 40 samples per second, with irregular oscillations typical of seismic noise

Traffic Fundamental Diagram (Transportation)

TrafficGCN/mfd_traffic_congestion_for_data_scientists (GitHub) · Code

Scatter plot of traffic flow (veh/hr/lane) vs density (veh/km/lane) showing the inverted-U fundamental diagram with free-flow, capacity, and congestion zones annotated

Drag Polar (Aerospace)

airfoiltools.com — NACA 0012 XFoil polar Re=1×10⁶ · Code

Drag polar curve for NACA 0012 airfoil showing lift coefficient vs drag coefficient with the maximum lift-to-drag ratio point starred and tangent line from origin

Moody Diagram (Fluid Mechanics)

Computed — Haaland (1983) explicit Colebrook-White approximation · Code

Moody diagram showing Darcy-Weisbach friction factor vs Reynolds number on log-log axes for seven relative roughness values from smooth pipe to epsilon/D=0.05

Psychrometric Chart (HVAC)

Computed — ASHRAE/Arden-Buck relations at 101325 Pa · Code

Psychrometric chart showing humidity ratio in grams per kilogram versus dry-bulb temperature in Celsius with ten constant-relative-humidity lines from 10% to 100% and comfort zone shaded

Pump & System Curve (Process Engineering)

OpenWaterAnalytics EPANET Net3 · Pump 10 curve · Code

Pump and system curve for EPANET Net3 Pump 10: falling quadratic pump head curve and rising parabolic system curve intersecting at the operating point

Bode Plot (Electrical Engineering)

scikit-rf · measured ring-slot antenna S-parameters (vector network analyzer, 75–110 GHz) · computed · Code

Bode plot of a measured ring-slot antenna: S11 and S21 magnitude (dB) and phase versus frequency, with a return-loss resonance near 86 GHz

McCabe-Thiele Diagram (Chemical Engineering)

github/chennieXD methanol-water VLE · Code

McCabe-Thiele diagram for methanol-water separation: equilibrium curve, 45° diagonal, rectifying and stripping operating lines, and staircase stepping off 3 theoretical trays

Cumulative Flow Diagram (Agile)

GitHub API · plotly/plotly.js · issue history · Code

Cumulative flow diagram of GitHub issues opened versus closed over time

Cycle-Time Scatter (Agile)

GitHub API · plotly/plotly.js · merged pull requests · Code

PR cycle time scatter with p50/p85/p95 percentile reference lines

Century of Daily Temperature (Climatology)

NASA GISS Global Surface Temperature · Open-Meteo archive fallback · Code

Climate spaghetti chart of annual temperature anomalies with rolling mean

A/B Test Results (Growth)

30lm32/ml-ab-testing · ab_data.csv · landing page A/B test · synthetic fallback · Code

A/B test bar chart comparing conversion rates with 95% confidence intervals

Sankey Diagram (Finance)

Illustrative tech-company P&L · hardcoded · Code

Sankey diagram of income statement flow from revenue through COGS, operating expenses, and taxes to net income

Sankey Diagram (Water-Energy Nexus)

Estimated U.S. water sector energy use · based on EPRI / PNNL nexus research · Code

Sankey diagram of energy flows through the water system from grid and fuel sources through supply, treatment, distribution, end use, and wastewater

ROC Curve (Diagnostics)

plotly/datasets · diabetes.csv · Pima Indians diabetes · glucose as classifier · Code

ROC curve for glucose as a diabetes classifier with AUC annotation

Epidemic Curve (Epidemiology)

Farr's 1849 London Cholera Deaths (Rdatasets/HistData) · Code

Weekly epidemic curve bar chart of London cholera deaths throughout 1849 with orange bars and a pink 3-week rolling average overlay, showing a sharp peak of 1,121 deaths in late summer

Decline Curve (Petroleum Engineering)

Jeffalltogether/well_decline_curve_analysis (GitHub) · Code

Log-scale line chart of monthly oil production in barrels from a single well, showing exponential decline from peak with a dashed best-fit line overlaid.

Burn-Down Chart (Agile)

Synthetic sprint data · hardcoded · Code

Sprint burn-down chart showing story points remaining versus ideal line with scope change annotation

Flow-Volume Loop (Pulmonology)

Synthetic normal adult male spirometry (FVC=4.8L, FEV1=3.9L, PEF=10.2 L/s) · Code

Normal spirometry flow-volume loop showing expiratory limb rising steeply to a peak flow of 10.2 L/s then declining to zero at FVC of 4.8 L, with inspiratory return limb below the x-axis

Forest Plot (Evidence-Based Medicine)

Rdatasets / HSAUR::BCG · BCG vaccine vs TB · 13 trials · Code

Forest plot of 13 BCG vaccine trials with pooled risk ratio estimate

Discharge Curves (Battery Engineering)

nicolet5/DiffCapAnalyzer CS2_33 cell (GitHub) · Code

Overlaid voltage versus discharge-capacity curves for 23 battery cycles, colored green to red from earliest to latest cycle to show capacity fade.

Loss-Development Triangle (P&C Actuarial)

RAA triangle (Mack 1994, hard-coded) · Code

Heatmap of the RAA cumulative loss development triangle with accident years 1981–1990 on the y-axis and development periods 1–10 on the x-axis, blank lower-right cells for unseen future diagonals

P-T Phase Diagram (Thermodynamics)

Computed — NIST thermodynamic constants (water triple point + Antoine equation) · Code

Water pressure-temperature phase diagram on a log pressure axis from 1 Pa to 500 MPa and temperature 170 to 680 K, showing three phase boundary curves: fusion (negative slope, violet), vaporization (orange), and sublimation (teal), with the triple point at 273.16 K and 611.7 Pa and critical point at 647.1 K and 22.1 MPa annotated, and Solid, Liquid, Gas region labels

Tumor-Response Waterfall (Oncology)

Synthetic (RECIST-based distribution) · Code

Waterfall bar chart of best percent change in tumor size for 60 simulated patients sorted best to worst; responders green, stable orange, progressors red; dashed lines at -30% and +20% thresholds

Titration Curve (Chemistry)

Computed — charge-balance model, acetic acid + NaOH (pKa=4.76) · Code

Titration curve showing pH vs volume NaOH added with half-equivalence and equivalence point annotated

Manhattan Plot (Genomics)

GWASTutorial summary statistics (Cloufield) · Code

Manhattan plot of ~100k GWAS variants across 22 chromosomes; chromosomes colored alternately in violet/teal/orange; genome-wide significance threshold at -log10(p)=7.3 shown as red dashed line

Hodograph (Meteorology)

Iowa State Mesonet OUN sounding 2024-05-12 · Code

Wind hodograph for OUN sounding 2024-05-12 00Z: u/v wind components from 61 levels (345–34963 m), markers colored by height, concentric range rings at 20/40/60/80 kt

T-S Diagram (Oceanography)

Argo float profiles (DaniJonesOcean) · Code

Temperature-salinity diagram with 5 Argo float profiles (lines+markers colored by pressure depth) overlaid on sigma-theta potential density isolines

Quiver / Vector Field (Fluid Dynamics)

plotly.figure_factory computed · Code

Quiver vector field of inviscid potential flow around a unit cylinder: violet arrows show velocity direction and magnitude, orange circles mark stagnation points

Streamlines (Fluid Dynamics)

plotly.figure_factory computed · Code

Streamline plot of potential flow around a circular cylinder: violet streamlines deflect symmetrically around the teal cylinder, stagnation points marked in orange

Contour Plot (Scientific Computing)

Hydrogen 2pz orbital · |ψ2,1,0|² probability density in the xz-plane · Bohr atomic units · Code

Filled contour plot of the hydrogen 2pz orbital probability density in the xz-plane, showing two lobes above and below the nodal plane with a violet-to-white colorscale

Parallel-Coordinate Assays (Mining)

Jura geochemical dataset (OpenML) · Code

Parallel-coordinate plot of seven heavy-metal concentrations (Cd, Co, Cr, Cu, Ni, Pb, Zn) on log10 axes for 359 soil samples, lines colored by cadmium concentration.