Phase
cmocean (Thyng et al. 2016) — phase
-
#a8780d -
#d34f4d -
#db25b0 -
#a759f3 -
#4d87d8 -
#13978e -
#4b972f
A synthetic demo grid, classed with equal intervals — the point is the palette against real basemap ink, not the data. Switch themes to see how much basemap the palette leaves room for.
Metadata
Provenance
Phase is cmocean's cyclic map, built for wave phase and current direction: it travels the full hue circle and returns to its starting color, holding lightness roughly constant so that no direction looks more important than another. That constant lightness is what makes it cyclic and also what makes it impossible to read in grayscale or under color vision deficiency — a known and accepted trade of the design. MIT-licensed (Thyng et al., 2016).
When to use it
The only correct family of palette for angular data — wind and current direction, aspect, time of day, day of year — where the value after the maximum is the minimum again. Using a linear ramp for these puts a false discontinuity at the wrap point; this does not. Keep the class count to eight or fewer, label the legend with compass points or clock hours rather than numbers, and do not use it for anything that is not genuinely circular.
License
MIT · source
The color specification carries this license, which is separate from the MIT license on this site. See attribution.