Calibration Time Series

The Calibration Time Series menu item provides several options using the RMC, including the options to configure the linkages with Define Calibration Series), plot data versus model with View Time-series Plot & View Correlation Plots, and generate a series of error measurements between model and data with Calculate Error Statistics. These options are described below. 

Defining Calibration Series

The form used to link cells to data and other parameters is shown in Figure 1. Once configured, the linkages between the individual grid cells and the data are automatically available, and the user only needs to press the Time-Series Plots and Correlation Plots button to compare the model to data for each run. The user should enter the number of series that linkage will be created for, as well as the start and end time for the comparisons. Other options are described below. 

Figure 1  Time series calibration EFDC cell and data linkage definitions.

There are several options on top of the grid table in the Model Calibration form. They are described in the table below.

Figure 2  Import calibration data file.

Figure 3  Export calibration data file.

Figure 4  Line style setting option.

Defining the MMA

MMA stands for minimum, maximum, and average. After selecting this option, the Line Settings form will be displayed showing the default lines names as seen in Figure 5. Press the F2 key to see more details about this option (Figure 6). In this form, [N] is the station name, and [L] is the layer name. These shown in the Data Series box, and user-configurable. The Data Series settings here will be displayed in the legend of the time-series plots. Besides using default settings, we can manually define the settings. To do this, select each line in the Data Series frame, then enter the new name for the Title in the Series Information frame. Click the OK button to apply these settings. For example, the user could change it from the default "[N] - Model, Layer Avg" to "[N] - Model ABC, Layer Avg," or  from "[N] - Data" to "[N] - Observed)."

Figure 5  Line setting for MMA.

Figure 6  Data Series Tips when Press F2.

Defining Layers

After the Define Layer option the Line Settings form will be displayed and the default lines names shown as in Figure 7. Pressing the F2 key also provides information help for this form. Again, [N] is the station name, [L] is the layer name as described above. The Data Series settings here will be displayed in the legend of the time series plots. Besides using default settings, we can define the settings by ourselves by selecting each line in the Data Series frame then entering a new name for the Title of the Series Information frame then click the OK button (e.g [N] - Model, [L] → [N] - Model ABC, [L]; [N] - Data → [N] - Observed). We also can set the line style and color from the Line Formatting frame.

Figure 7  Line setting for MMA.

Apply User Defined Settings

The Apply User Defined option allow the user to set and apply their own line style options instead of the EE default line settings. After configuring the Define MMA and Define Layer options, in order to use those settings it is necessary to check the checkbox for Apply User Defined selected. The data series settings displayed on the legend of the time series plots will be applied to what was previously defined .

Figure 8  Appy User Defined.

For each model-data pair, the user must specify the information listed in each column:

• Name:The ID field is used for labeling the plots and statistical reports.
• X & Y: Enter the X and Y in meters of the location of the data station. The coordinate system must be the same as that used for the model. Using these coordinates the matching model cell is determined. User can check the coordinates by clicking on Get I & J button in Figure 9 that allows the user to input X and Y values in the LXLY units to determine the corresponding values of I & J. 
• Layer: This is the layer specification option. There are three options as shown. The Min-Avg-Max (MMA) option generates three model time series for the cell, based on the water column layer results.
• H (m): The depth or elevation specified if the selected layer option is Fixed Depth or Fixed Elevation.
• Parameter: Select the parameter that will be extracted from the model for comparison to the data contained in the corresponding data file in Figure 9. Or user can type the parameter code  in Param column in Time Series Comparisons form (Figure 1) based on the list of currently available parameters shown in Figure 10. To show the parameter code as shown in Figure 10, the user clicks on the Information button () on the top of the table frame in Figure 9. Table 1 summarizes all parameter codes.
• Data File: This field contains the full path to the data file, in DAT or WQ formats, for the specific parameter, location, and layer option. The user can leave this field blank to only display a model time series. Rows shown in pink indicate path names that are not valid (e.g. files were deleted by the user after initial setup) and need to be redefined. If the model path of the data has changed, highlight the cells in the column to be changed and use the CTRL+H keystroke to search and replace part of the path to update it. 
• Group: This is the plot number. If each line uses a unique Group # then each model-data pair will be displayed on a separate plot. If two or more model-data lines use the same Group # they will be displayed on the same plot.
• Use: This is a flag to optionally turn on or off the plots and statistics computation for each model-data pair.

Other options included:

• Time Tolerance is used to set the time tolerance in minutes, such that there is a time match when the MODEL_TIME is within the DATA_TIME +/- tolerance.
• Julian Date Offset is used when Julian dates have been used in the data files rather than Calendar dates. This offset allows the user to add this number of whole days to the Julian dates
• Reload Model Output checkbox is used to reload the model result in case of re-simulation of the model.

Note that if a link is incorrectly configured and the file cannot be found at that pathname it will appear with a red highlight.

When first starting with the model-data linkage process, the Number of Time Series field will be "0". To initially define or add/remove linkages, enter the number of desired linkages. When the user presses "Enter" the data grid will display the number of lines required. The number of model-data linkages can be changed at any time. However, the definitions above the maximum number of linkages will be deleted.

Right mouse click on the cells to obtain Station Information form to define model parameters and data series file paths as shown in Figure 9.

Figure 9  Station Information definitions.

Figure 10   Calibration parameter codes.

Table 1   Calibration parameter codes.

To find text in the Model Calibration form, from the keyboard press the Ctrl+F, the Find form will pop up, enter texts in the form, then click the OK button, the grid cell which contains the texts will be highlighted as shown in Figure 11. Press F3 to continue finding the texts somewhere else. In case the text is not existing, an informing message will be displayed as shown in Figure 12.

Figure 11  Find text option.

Figure 12  A warning message when the text is not existing.

To replace text in the Model Calibration form, from the keyboard press the Ctrl+H, the Search and Replace form will pop up, enter texts for Search Text and Replace With in the form, then click the Replace All button to proceed as shown in Figure 13.

Figure 13  Replace text option.

Time Series Plots

The View Time Series Plots option allows the user to view on screen or export the plots that are currently defined and enabled (i.e. Use checkbox is checked). The View Time Series Plots option loads the EFDC model linkage files (e.g. EE*.OUT), reads the observed data files, and then scans the model linkage files to build the model-data plots. The user can press ESC during the model output loading process to abort the loading and plotting. When the data has been loaded, the time series plotting utility is displayed. This is the same utility used for all other time series and X-Y plots. However, when viewing the time series calibration plots two (2) additional functions are available on the toolbar to select move to the previous plot or move to the next calibration plot. The following graphic shows the time series plotting toolbar with the two calibration-specific functions outlined in red.

When moving from one plot to the next, when the last plot has been viewed, the user is requested to either continue viewing the plots (starting over at plot 1) or keep viewing the current plot.

Figure 4 and Figure 5 provide example plots produced by the Calibration Time Series function. Figure 14 is for a water surface elevation comparison (Depth Average layer option). Figure 15 is for a water surface temperature comparison.

Figure 14  Example model-data time series comparison for water levels.

Figure 15  Example model-data time series comparison for Temperature.

To save the plot to an external file, click the Export Image button, the Export Graphic to file form will pop up. Define a file name and select file format from the drop-down list as shown in Figure 16. The file format can be *.emf, png, jpg, tif, gif, and bmp. We can set a resolution for the file from the Bitmap Settings frame.

Figure 16  Export graphic to file.

Correlation Plots

An additional feature of Calibration Time Series tool of EFDC+ Explorer is the ability to plot correlations between the model and existing data to assist the user in calibration. 

An example of a correlation plot is shown in Figure 17. Note that observed data is shown on the x-axis, and the model data is shown on the y-axis.

Figure 17  Example model data Correlation Plots comparison for water surface elevation.

The window size for each plot may be saved. Even though screen aspect ratios may vary between different computers, they will still produce the same final plots. CTRL-W sets the size of the plot box size, and when the user saves the project, the size of the plot will also be saved.