Thoughts on adding a "getSunElevation" method to the GeodeticPoint class

Orekit development
1

Hi all,

A colleague of mine suggested that we could add a “getSunElevation” method to the GeodeticPoint class. What are your thoughts on this ? I believe it would be fairly easy and could be useful from a user point of view.

Cheers,
Vincent

2

I don’t get it.
How is the Sun position computed?
This would imply both a CelestialBody and a OneAxisEllipsoid argument. GeodeticPoint is almost just a very low level container, I don’t think such a method should be there.

3

Hi @luc ,

Yes clearly, the GeodeticPoint would not be the best class. However, something similar could be done inside BodyShape by giving a GeodeticPoint, a PVCoordinatesProvider for the sun + the target and finally an AbsoluteDate. This could be called “elevationFrom” for example.

This is only a suggestion and i do not particularly need this so it would be helpful to have the point of view of other users i guess ?

Cheers,
Vincent

4

So similar to TopocentricFrame.getElevation(position, frame, date)?

5

Yup, now i feel dumb :sweat_smile:. Thank you @evan.ward