We are excited to announce the latest changes to the Dashboard system. The AethLabs Dashboard is a set of hosted data management and visualization tools that gets you started in doing data analysis of the Black Carbon data collected by the microAeth.
You can sign up to use the Dashboard by creating an account on our site here.
We've made some changes to the system that make it more powerful and easier to understand and use and we'd like to announcement below.
New data smoothing options
We've reconfigured the smoothing options by adding a new (and preferred) local polynomial regression smoothing algorithm as well as making each of the smoothing options (the one previously mentioned as well as the ones that were already there - the ONA, and the centered moving average) exclusive. We've also made the variable for the number of points for the smoothing window a bit more intuitive - the number now corresponds with the total number of points within the window. We've set default values to have the local polynomial regression on and set to a 7-point smooth.
Data flagging
We've also made public a feature we've been using internally for a couple months - flagging points based on various metrics. We've introduced flagging points based on any reported instrument status errors - an option we've turned on by default, but that you can turn off on individual data files, if need be. Each of the various types of status errors will produce a new data series of flags that can be individually turned on and off when viewing the chart. You have the option to include the flagged data points within the final chart that is produced or to check the option for "Hide flagged data points from the dataset" - which will remove flagged points from the post-processed data series.
View raw Black Carbon data
We know that when you apply algorithms to the data, you'll sometimes want to also view the original data alongside the post-processed output and we've made an option for that as well.
Notes field
We've added a Notes field to data files to allow you to provide a little more context for the data file, if you like.
New features notification
Since we know you probably don't want an email every time we'd like to let you know what is new, we've also added a new feature that lets you know when there is a new feature announcement with a link in the header next to your dashboard link when you are logged in. The link will show up whenever there are new feature announcements that you haven't seen and will disappear after you've seen them.
Go directly to your dashboard
When you log in, you'll now go directly to your dashboard. You can always update your account information by clicking the "My account" link in the header.
And despite the additions of new features, we've made the edit data file interface a bit simpler and (hopefully) more intuitive. We've also fixed a number of bugs, made several performance improvements, and tried to streamline and make more consistent the user interface.
Please let us know if you have any feedback on the changes we've made or suggestions for making the system meet your needs better. Please sign up and try out this early version of the Dashboard and we hope you find it useful!