How to increase plottable space above a subplot in matplotlib?

Question

I am currently making a plot on matplotlib, which looks like below.

The code for which is:

fig, ax1 = plt.subplots(figsize=(20,5))

ax2 = ax1.twinx()

# plt.subplots_adjust(top=1.4)

ax2.fill_between(dryhydro_df['Time'],dryhydro_df['Flow [m³/s]'],0,facecolor='lightgrey')
ax2.set_ylim([0,10])

AB = ax2.fill_between(dryhydro_df['Time'],[12]*len(dryhydro_df['Time']),9.25,facecolor=colors[0],alpha=0.5,clip_on=False)

ab = ax2.scatter(presence_df['Datetime'][presence_df['AB']==True],[9.5]*sum(presence_df['AB']==True),marker='X',color='black') 

# tidal heights
ax1.plot(tide_df['Time'],tide_df['Tide'],color='dimgrey')

I want the blue shaded region and black scatter to be above the plot. I can move the elements above the plot by using clip_on=False but I think I need to extend the space above the plot to do visualise it. Is there a way to do this? Mock-up of what I need is below:

Asked By: nia

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Source

Answer 1

You can use clip_on=False to draw outside the main plot. To position the elements, an xaxis transform helps. That way, x-values can be used in the x direction, while the y-direction uses "axes coordinates". ax.transAxes() uses "axes coordinates" for both directions.

import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
import pandas as pd
import numpy as np

dates = pd.date_range('2018-07-01', '2018-07-31', freq='H')
xs = dates.to_numpy().astype(float)
ys = np.sin(xs * .091) * (np.sin(xs * .023) ** 2 + 1)

fig, ax1 = plt.subplots(figsize=(20, 5))
ax1.plot(dates, ys)
ax1.scatter(np.random.choice(dates, 10), np.repeat(1.05, 10), s=20, marker='*', transform=ax1.get_xaxis_transform(),
            clip_on=False)
ax1.plot([0, 1], [1.05, 1.05], color='steelblue', lw=20, alpha=0.2, transform=ax1.transAxes, clip_on=False)
plt.tight_layout() # fit labels etc. nicely
plt.subplots_adjust(top=0.9) # make room for the additional elements
plt.show()

Answered By: JohanC

How to increase plottable space above a subplot in matplotlib?

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