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TSTool Documentation <br /> Quick Start - 1 <br />TSTool Quick Start Guide <br />2014-05-21 <br /> <br />This document will help you download, install, and run TSTool software using simple examples, and will <br />point out other resources that are available for more in-depth learning. This guide assumes that the user <br />has very little TSTool experience. After reading the guide and running the examples, you will have a <br />basic understanding of how TSTool works, and can begin to explore its capabilities. This document <br />focuses on installing TSTool on Microsoft Windows; however, the information is relevant for Linux and <br />Mac computers. <br /> <br />Examples mentioned in this document are provided for convenience. The TSTool command files can <br />be opened and run. However, to learn how to use TSTool it is recommended that you create the <br />examples yourself using the TSTool software by following instructions in this document. <br /> <br />TSTool (“time series tool”) was originally developed for the State of Colorado as part of Colorado’s <br />Decision Support Systems (CDSS) in order to process data from the State’s HydroBase database into data <br />files for river basin modeling software. Since the initial development, TSTool has been enhanced to have <br />many capabilities and can be applied to many problems involving time series, tabular data from databases <br />and Excel, maps, and websites. TSTool has been developed and enhanced with funding from the State of <br />Colorado and others sources and the State is migrating TSTool and other CDSS software to open source <br />licensing. The Open Water Foundation (OWF) continues to enhance and support TSTool in support of <br />various projects. <br /> <br />Examples of TSTool applications include: <br /> <br /> Browsing time series data available from internet web services (streamflow, climate, snow, etc.) <br /> Automating data downloads, quality control, and creating data products <br /> Analyzing current conditions (streamflow, snow, drought, or other data) with respect to historical <br />data and producing graphs for multiple locations to monitor and model river systems <br /> Processing raw data into model data files <br /> Processing model output into graphical products, performing quality control, and facilitating <br />model calibration <br /> Automating database loading <br /> Automating creation of Excel data sheets for data entry from a template <br /> Performing statewide water demand and supply analysis, with graphs at every step to ensure <br />transparency in calculations <br /> Calculating natural flow in rivers by manipulating time series <br /> <br />TSTool Capabilities <br /> <br />TSTool, as the name implies, focuses on processing time series. Time series are data sets that include a <br />series of date/time and value pairs, for example to indicate how temperature, precipitation, and <br />streamflow change over time at a specific location. Each data value also may have an associated data flag <br />that may indicate, for example, a missing value, an estimated value, or some other qualifier. Although the <br />format of time series data varies between sources and data formats, they all have the same fundamental <br />properties and TSTool deals with time series in a general way. Time series can be displayed in both <br />graphical and tabular forms, as shown below. The TSTool visualization tools handle time series with <br />different data intervals (including irregular time interval), missing data, and units. <br />