[R] Creating a Polar Plot with expanding points as radius increases

[Jim Lemon]

On 06/28/2011 08:35 AM, Patrick Jemison wrote:
> I'd like to create a polar plot similar to those created by the polarFreq
> function in the openair package.  However, this package seems to be specific
> to wind speed and direction, and requires a "ws" (wind speed) and a "wd"
> (wind direction) column.  My data is unrelated to wind speed, but I'd like
> to be able to get a plot that does what polarFreq's plots do; I'd like to
> have points that expand as their distance from the center increases.
>
> http://www.oga-lab.net/RGM2/func.php?rd_id=openair:polarFreq
>
> Without this property, my plot looks more like spokes on a wheel, or similar
> to the polar.plot function in the plotrix package:
> http://www.oga-lab.net/RGM2/func.php?rd_id=plotrix:polar.plot
>
> Is there a package or function available that allows the creation of a plot
> as described above for a generic set of polar data?  I spent a few hours
> today trying to find something I could use, but no luck yet.
>
> I'm using data of the form: x = r, y = theta, and z = a value to plot at the
> corresponding r,theta (as a comparison, for the polarFreq plot, z would be
> the frequency that is indicated by various colors in the plot).
>
Hi Patrick,
polar.plot (or other plots in the radial.plot family) currently don't 
plot sectors or fill the (what the heck is the intersection of a sector 
and an annulus called?) to illustrate a third value (say, proportion) in 
addition to direction and intensity. However, it can be done, and I 
might just have a shot at it if I can scratch up an hour or two sometime 
in the next couple of years. Well, maybe sooner than that. Look out for 
"radial.pie".

Jim