website | zine (coming soon)
METEORITES DRAWING OUR WORLD
A web page dedicated to the landed meteorites on earth.
The first part of the website is an abstract generative illustration created using P5. It is based on the mass (=size), composition (=colour) and landing date (=shape) of 17,732 meteorites. Each time the user clicks on the screen, they can visualise 100 years of landed meteorites. The visualisation starts in 1400 and ends in 2013.
The first part of the website is an abstract generative illustration created using P5. It is based on the mass (=size), composition (=colour) and landing date (=shape) of 17,732 meteorites. Each time the user clicks on the screen, they can visualise 100 years of landed meteorites. The visualisation starts in 1400 and ends in 2013.
The size of the figures indicates the total mass of meteorites.
The color represents the composition, either chrondrites or achondrites. Finnaly, the polygons number of sides increases every century.
The color represents the composition, either chrondrites or achondrites. Finnaly, the polygons number of sides increases every century.
The second section is composed of two graphs using the D3 library. The first chart represents the total of meteorites landed in each country and the second visualises the sum of meteorites with the same chemical composition.
The final section of the page was dedicated to how the data was selected, cleaned, manipulated and displayed. When using data it is essential to be transparent and to use a feminist approach in the process, form and content of the project (Klein, and D’Ignazio, 2020).
Develop and coding process
We downloaded the dataset from NASA’s Open Data Portal which included the locations coordinates. We merged it with OpenCageData to make reverse geolocation as we needed the country and region names.
Then, we used Node to call the API and create a new dataset. 27,695 meteorites were not located either because the dataset included no coordinates or the API responded without information.
We downloaded the dataset from NASA’s Open Data Portal which included the locations coordinates. We merged it with OpenCageData to make reverse geolocation as we needed the country and region names.
Then, we used Node to call the API and create a new dataset. 27,695 meteorites were not located either because the dataset included no coordinates or the API responded without information.
Cleaning the data
Additionally, we decided to erase the meteorites without a specific year or contradictory data.
Additionally, we decided to erase the meteorites without a specific year or contradictory data.
D3 map and ridgeline
Design
Inspired by meteorites' shapes and falling movements, we wanted to produce a random pattern that connects the rational data with visual elements.
Inspired by meteorites' shapes and falling movements, we wanted to produce a random pattern that connects the rational data with visual elements.
Creating the polygons according to the year range
HTML and CSS
Bib
- Fernandes, L. (2021) MA in Data visualisation, UAL: LCC
- Meteorites (2022) University of Minnesota
- Meteorite classification (2022) Wikipedia
- Open Cage Geocoding API (2022)
Tech
Illustrator, P5, D3, Node, Visual Studio, Github, Miro, Tableau, HTML, CSS
Team
Giampaolo Zirone
Year
2022
