spicedsun

Calculation of solar data using NASA’s SPICE toolbox.

This data includes:

• Azimuth angle (in degrees)
• Zenith angle (in degrees)

Requirements

• python>=3.7
• numpy>=1.21.5
• spiceypy>=5.0.0

Installation

pip install spicedsun

Kernels

In order to use the package, a directory with all the kernels must be downloaded.

That directory must contain the following kernels:

• https://naif.jpl.nasa.gov/pub/naif/JUNO/kernels/spk/de421.bsp
• https://naif.jpl.nasa.gov/pub/naif/pds/wgc/kernels/pck/earth_070425_370426_predict.bpc
• https://naif.jpl.nasa.gov/pub/naif/generic_kernels/fk/planets/earth_assoc_itrf93.tf
• https://naif.jpl.nasa.gov/pub/naif/generic_kernels/pck/earth_latest_high_prec.bpc
• https://naif.jpl.nasa.gov/pub/naif/generic_kernels/lsk/naif0011.tls
• https://naif.jpl.nasa.gov/pub/naif/generic_kernels/pck/pck00010.tpc

Usage

If one wanted to obtain the solar azimuth and zenith at Izaña Atmospheric Observatory, on 2022-01-17 at 15:00:00 (UTC), we could use the following snippet of code:

import spicedsun as sps

lat = 28.309283
lon = -16.499143
alt = 2373
dts = ["2022-01-17 15:00:00"]
sds = sps.get_sun_datas(lat, lon, alt, dts, "./kernels")
az = sds[0].azimuth
ze = sds[0].zenith

Note that the kernels directory is called "kernels" and is located in the directory where the previous code is executed.