Adjusting scale

[olafveerman]

CO2 slowly builds up in the atmosphere. The current (fixed) scaling highlights seasonal variations in recent years, but does a poor job visualizing data going back further. The example below shows CO2 from 2015. The data is off the scale. (see NASA-IMPACT/covid-api#143 for more examples)

Adjusting scale

The science teams have requested to use yearly min/max values to make the seasonal cycles more apparent. Questions we need to address:

• This comes with its own set of usability challenges. How do we communicate changes in scale to the user? A user comparing data from 2015 with 2021, may see the same picture, but with different underlying values. Is this a problem if they are just interested in distribution and seasonal cycles, as opposed to growth over time?
• is it useful to show two different takes on the product? One that highlights seasonal cycles, versus one that highlights the steady growth over time?
• are there more products that have the same use case?

cc @leothomas @ricardoduplos