Mackay Minutes 2016/09/01

MacKay website, and minutes

How did we do on our todo list?

• All: please read the two MacKay reports mentioned above:
  • Phenological Observations in Nova Scotia and Canada, 1900
  • MacKay describes phenological work in Canada since 1890 in the Canadian Record of Science, 1899

• Andy
  • Straighten out the SVD strategy; do we need to do a scaling that we haven't done?
  • Continue tidying up the report. Finish intro, incorporating remarks from MacKay, then on to data compilation. I suggest that this be a paper about the summary data, not the Fenech data.
  • R and GIS....

• Madison
  • get and graph DEM model for Nova Scotia
  • get soils info from Thad
  • try to put the schools into Nova Scotia map, perhaps 3D.
  • keep looking for wind/current/etc. data for Nova Scotia
  • replot the small multiples with the new "final" data set.

• Laura
  • will look into non-linear regression packages for R
  • think about how to create a criterion for "best" regression angle.
  • How is the angle obtained (whatever it is) sensible? Is it really the "main-axis" of Nova Scotia? Maybe we can plot "Nova Scotia" once it's been rotated....
  • Document how the "final FAT data" was created.

• Steve
  • will check on deadlines for Joint Math Meeting abstract submissions/sessions.

• Thad (bonus!)
  • will see if he can find any GIS info to help Madison== The Readings ==

• No new readings.

Moving forward

• Talk for the MAA:

Pioneering Climate Science and Data Analysis: the work of Alexander MacKay (1848-1929)

in the category of

Interdisciplinary Topics in Mathematics (Statistics, linear algebra, GIS, Botany, climate science)

in the contributed papers section.

Our objective would be to

1. Describe MacKay as a brilliant quantitative scientist, and his citizen science project (Andy)
2. Describe the summary data, and how we found it; associated data (e.g. climatological data); and problems we encountered, how we solved them, etc. (Madison)
3. Describe climate-related discoveries so far (Laura).

http://jointmathematicsmeetings.org/meetings/national/jmm2017/2180_maacall

In the News

• 167 Tiny Maps Tell the Major Story of Climate Change: These maps show how much the planet has warmed every year since 1850.
  • Using a technique called “small multiples” developed by data visualization expert Edward Tufte, Hawkins mapped out the annual average temperature anomaly for every year from 1850 through 2016 using data from the UK Met Office. http://assets.climatecentral.org/images/made/9_1_16_Brian_TinyMapsClimateChange_720_679_s_c1_c_c.png

Todo for next week

• All: Please read Teresa's article for next time (everyone should have received an email).

• Andy
  • continues to focus on historical issues, which should be reflected in the intro to the paper.
  • more on the SVD next time.

• Madison
  • will continue working on the small multiples

• Laura
  • will continue pursuing the non-linear regression stuff, and seek help if needed.

• Steve
  • Steve will look up deadlines for posters, etc., at the Joint Meetings
  • Steve offered to help Madison with stripping values out of a csv file.

Next meeting

Thursday, 9/8, 3:00