View source for Polar rose plot

A '''polar rose plot''' (or '''roseplot''') is an angle histogram showing the distribution of values grouped according to their numeric range (viewed as a "polar plot"). It is similar to a [[wikipedia:Rose_%28mathematics%29|polar rose]] (i.e. with <tt>r = cos(k*&theta;</tt>)) but not necessarily symmetric, as the symmetry (or "direction" of petals) is entirely dependant on the input data.

A roseplot is useful for viewing the "direction" of input data. It is commonly used for plotting the daily (or yearly, etc.) average wind direction at a given location (sometimes called a "wind direction plot").

I routinely use roseplots in my [[:Category:Bioinformatics|bioinformatics]] [[:Category:Academic Research|research]]. They are especially useful for getting an overview of amino acid- or nucleotide-usage in a given genome or sequence (note: to see what I mean, have a look at the Genome Atlas Server at CBS).

== External links ==
* [[wikipedia:Polar coordinate system]]
* [http://www.mathworks.com/access/helpdesk/help/techdoc/ref/index.html?/access/helpdesk/help/techdoc/ref/rose.html MATLAB Function Reference - rose]

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[[Category:Bioinformatics]]
[[Category:Graphics software]]