Polar Bar Chart (Wind Rose) — ggplot2

A bar chart arranged in a circle with bars radiating outward from the center. Each bar's angle represents a category (often direction) and length represents magnitude. Commonly used as a wind rose for meteorological data.

Polar Bar Chart (Wind Rose) rendered with ggplot2

Renders

R source (ggplot2)

#' anyplot.ai
#' polar-bar: Polar Bar Chart (Wind Rose)
#' Library: ggplot2 3.5.1 | R 4.4.1
#' Quality: 90/100 | Created: 2026-09-05

library(ggplot2)
library(dplyr)
library(tidyr)
library(scales)
library(ragg)

set.seed(42)

# Theme tokens (see prompts/default-style-guide.md "Background" + "Theme-adaptive Chrome")
THEME    <- Sys.getenv("ANYPLOT_THEME", "light")
PAGE_BG  <- if (THEME == "light") "#FAF8F1" else "#1A1A17"
INK      <- if (THEME == "light") "#1A1A17" else "#F0EFE8"
INK_SOFT <- if (THEME == "light") "#4A4A44" else "#B8B7B0"

# Imprint categorical palette — first series is always brand green
IMPRINT_PALETTE <- c("#009E73", "#C475FD", "#4467A3", "#BD8233", "#AE3030")

# Data — synthetic meteorological wind rose: 16 compass directions, 5 speed bins
directions <- c(
  "N", "NNE", "NE", "ENE", "E", "ESE", "SE", "SSE",
  "S", "SSW", "SW", "WSW", "W", "WNW", "NW", "NNW"
)
speed_bins <- c("0-5 kt", "5-10 kt", "10-15 kt", "15-20 kt", "20+ kt")

# Prevailing westerlies: weight toward SW/W, light toward N/NE
direction_weights <- c(2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 5, 7, 9, 8, 10, 14, 12, 10, 7, 5, 3)
wind_direction <- sample(directions,
  size = 3000, replace = TRUE,
  prob = direction_weights / sum(direction_weights)
)
wind_speed <- sample(speed_bins,
  size = 3000, replace = TRUE,
  prob = c(0.30, 0.27, 0.20, 0.14, 0.09)
)

wind_counts <- tibble(
  direction = factor(wind_direction, levels = directions),
  speed     = factor(wind_speed, levels = speed_bins)
) %>%
  count(direction, speed, name = "n")

wind_df <- expand_grid(
  direction = factor(directions, levels = directions),
  speed     = factor(speed_bins, levels = speed_bins)
) %>%
  left_join(wind_counts, by = c("direction", "speed")) %>%
  mutate(
    n = replace_na(n, 0),
    frequency = n / sum(n) * 100
  )

# Plot — bars radiate from center, angle = direction, stacked by speed bin.
# position_stack(reverse = TRUE) puts the largest bin (0-5 kt) innermost and
# the thin high-speed bins outermost, where the bigger radius gives them more
# circumference to render against — otherwise they collapse to invisible
# slivers near the center.
p <- ggplot(wind_df, aes(x = direction, y = frequency, fill = speed)) +
  geom_col(width = 1, color = PAGE_BG, linewidth = 0.3, position = position_stack(reverse = TRUE)) +
  coord_polar(theta = "x", start = -pi / 16, clip = "off") +
  scale_fill_manual(values = IMPRINT_PALETTE, name = "Wind speed") +
  scale_y_continuous(labels = label_percent(scale = 1), expand = expansion(mult = c(0, 0.03))) +
  labs(title = "polar-bar · r · ggplot2 · anyplot.ai", x = NULL, y = NULL) +
  theme_minimal(base_size = 8) +
  theme(
    plot.background   = element_rect(fill = PAGE_BG, color = PAGE_BG),
    panel.background  = element_rect(fill = PAGE_BG, color = NA),
    panel.grid.major  = element_line(color = INK_SOFT, linewidth = 0.2),
    panel.grid.minor  = element_blank(),
    panel.border      = element_blank(),
    axis.line         = element_blank(),
    axis.ticks        = element_blank(),
    axis.text.x       = element_text(color = INK_SOFT, size = 9, margin = margin(t = 3)),
    axis.text.y       = element_text(color = INK_SOFT, size = 7),
    plot.title        = element_text(color = INK, size = 12, hjust = 0.5),
    plot.margin       = margin(t = 10, r = 10, b = 6, l = 10),
    legend.background = element_rect(fill = PAGE_BG, color = NA),
    legend.text       = element_text(color = INK_SOFT, size = 8),
    legend.title      = element_text(color = INK, size = 10),
    legend.key.size   = unit(0.4, "cm"),
    legend.margin     = margin(t = 0, b = 0),
    legend.box.spacing = unit(2, "pt"),
    legend.position   = "bottom"
  )

# Save
ggsave(
  filename = sprintf("plot-%s.png", THEME),
  plot     = p,
  device   = ragg::agg_png,
  width    = 6,
  height   = 6,
  units    = "in",
  dpi      = 400
)

Retrieve this implementation

Runnable source as JSON, for any HTTP client: https://api.anyplot.ai/specs/polar-bar/ggplot2/code. Any spec id and library id listed in llms-full.txt fit the same URL shape; every URL below is complete and callable.

{
  "spec_id": "polar-bar",
  "language": "r",
  "library": "ggplot2",
  "page": "https://anyplot.ai/polar-bar/r/ggplot2",
  "hub": "https://anyplot.ai/polar-bar",
  "code_json": "https://api.anyplot.ai/specs/polar-bar/ggplot2/code",
  "spec_json": "https://api.anyplot.ai/specs/polar-bar",
  "render_light_png": "https://storage.googleapis.com/anyplot-images/plots/polar-bar/r/ggplot2/plot-light.png",
  "render_dark_png": "https://storage.googleapis.com/anyplot-images/plots/polar-bar/r/ggplot2/plot-dark.png",
  "quality_score": 90.0,
  "license": "MIT",
  "guide": "https://anyplot.ai/llms.txt"
}

Part of Polar Bar Chart (Wind Rose) on anyplot.ai.

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