Taylor Diagram

Taylor diagrams (Taylor, 2001) provide a way of graphically summarizing how closely a pattern (or a set of patterns) matches observations.  The similarity between two patterns is quantified in terms of their correlation, their centered root-mean-squaredifference and the amplitude of their variations (represented by their standard deviations).  These diagrams are especially useful in evaluating multiple aspects of complex models or in gauging the relative skill of many different models (e.g., IPCC, 2001).

In general, the Taylor diagram characterizes the statistical relationship between two fields, a "test" field (often representing a field simulated by a model) and a "reference" field (usually representing “truth”, based on observations).

The two-dimensional space of the Taylor diagram can represent three different statistics simultaneously:

       - The centered RMS difference 
       - The correlation,
       - The standard deviation

Author: Fernando Santoro