EarthLocation¶

class astropy.coordinates.EarthLocation[source] [edit on github]¶

Bases: astropy.units.quantity.Quantity

Location on the Earth.

Initialization is first attempted assuming geocentric (x, y, z) coordinates are given; if that fails, another attempt is made assuming geodetic coordinates (longitude, latitude, height above a reference ellipsoid). When using the geodetic forms, Longitudes are measured increasing to the east, so west longitudes are negative. Internally, the coordinates are stored as geocentric.

To ensure a specific type of coordinates is used, use the corresponding class methods (from_geocentric and from_geodetic) or initialize the arguments with names (x, y, z for geocentric; lon, lat, height for geodetic). See the class methods for details.

Notes

This class fits into the coordinates transformation framework in that it encodes a position on the ITRS frame. To get a proper ITRS object from this object, use the itrs property.

Attributes Summary

`ellipsoid`	The default ellipsoid used to convert to geodetic coordinates.
`geocentric`	Convert to a tuple with X, Y, and Z as quantities
`geodetic`	Convert to geodetic coordinates for the default ellipsoid.
`height`	Height of the location, for the default ellipsoid.
`info`	Container for meta information like name, description, format.
`itrs`	An `ITRS` object with for the location of this object at the default `obstime`.
`lat`	Longitude of the location, for the default ellipsoid.
`latitude`	Deprecated since version 2.0.
`lon`	Longitude of the location, for the default ellipsoid.
`longitude`	Deprecated since version 2.0.
`x`	The X component of the geocentric coordinates.
`y`	The Y component of the geocentric coordinates.
`z`	The Z component of the geocentric coordinates.

Methods Summary

`from_geocentric`(x, y, z[, unit])	Location on Earth, initialized from geocentric coordinates.
`from_geodetic`(lon, lat[, height, ellipsoid])	Location on Earth, initialized from geodetic coordinates.
`get_gcrs_posvel`(obstime)	Calculate the GCRS position and velocity of this object at the requested `obstime`.
`get_itrs`([obstime])	Generates an `ITRS` object with the location of this object at the requested `obstime`.
`get_site_names`()	Get list of names of observatories for use with `of_site`.
`of_address`(address[, get_height])	Return an object of this class for a given address by querying the Google maps geocoding API.
`of_site`(site_name)	Return an object of this class for a known observatory/site by name.
`to_geocentric`()	Convert to a tuple with X, Y, and Z as quantities
`to_geodetic`([ellipsoid])	Convert to geodetic coordinates.

Attributes Documentation

ellipsoid¶: The default ellipsoid used to convert to geodetic coordinates.

geocentric¶: Convert to a tuple with X, Y, and Z as quantities

geodetic¶: Convert to geodetic coordinates for the default ellipsoid.

height¶: Height of the location, for the default ellipsoid.

info¶: Container for meta information like name, description, format. This is required when the object is used as a mixin column within a table, but can be used as a general way to store meta information.

itrs¶: An ITRS object with for the location of this object at the default obstime.

lat¶: Longitude of the location, for the default ellipsoid.

latitude¶: Deprecated since version 2.0: The latitude property is deprecated and may be removed in a future version. Use lat instead.

Latitude of the location, for the default ellipsoid.

lon¶: Longitude of the location, for the default ellipsoid.

longitude¶: Deprecated since version 2.0: The longitude property is deprecated and may be removed in a future version. Use lon instead.

Longitude of the location, for the default ellipsoid.

x¶: The X component of the geocentric coordinates.

y¶: The Y component of the geocentric coordinates.

z¶: The Z component of the geocentric coordinates.

Methods Documentation

classmethod from_geocentric(x, y, z, unit=None)[source] [edit on github]¶

Location on Earth, initialized from geocentric coordinates.

Parameters:

x, y, z : Quantity or array-like

Cartesian coordinates. If not quantities, unit should be given.

unit : UnitBase object or None

Physical unit of the coordinate values. If x, y, and/or z are quantities, they will be converted to this unit.

Raises:

astropy.units.UnitsError

If the units on x, y, and z do not match or an invalid unit is given.

ValueError

If the shapes of x, y, and z do not match.

TypeError

If x is not a Quantity and no unit is given.

classmethod from_geodetic(lon, lat, height=0.0, ellipsoid=None)[source] [edit on github]¶

Location on Earth, initialized from geodetic coordinates.

Parameters:

lon : Longitude or float

Earth East longitude. Can be anything that initialises an Angle object (if float, in degrees).

lat : Latitude or float

Earth latitude. Can be anything that initialises an Latitude object (if float, in degrees).

height : Quantity or float, optional

Height above reference ellipsoid (if float, in meters; default: 0).

ellipsoid : str, optional

Name of the reference ellipsoid to use (default: ‘WGS84’). Available ellipsoids are: ‘WGS84’, ‘GRS80’, ‘WGS72’.

Raises:

astropy.units.UnitsError

If the units on lon and lat are inconsistent with angular ones, or that on height with a length.

ValueError

If lon, lat, and height do not have the same shape, or if ellipsoid is not recognized as among the ones implemented.

Notes

For the conversion to geocentric coordinates, the ERFA routine gd2gc is used. See https://github.com/liberfa/erfa

get_gcrs_posvel(obstime)[source] [edit on github]¶

Calculate the GCRS position and velocity of this object at the requested obstime.

Parameters:

obstime : Time

The obstime to calculate the GCRS position/velocity at.

Returns:

obsgeoloc : CartesianRepresentation

The GCRS position of the object

obsgeovel : CartesianRepresentation

The GCRS velocity of the object

get_itrs(obstime=None)[source] [edit on github]¶

Generates an ITRS object with the location of this object at the requested obstime.

Parameters:

obstime : Time or None

The obstime to apply to the new ITRS, or if None, the default obstime will be used.

Returns:

itrs : ITRS

The new object in the ITRS frame

classmethod get_site_names()[source] [edit on github]¶

Get list of names of observatories for use with of_site.

Note

When this function is called, it will first attempt to download site information from the astropy data server. If it cannot (i.e., an internet connection is not available), it will fall back on the list included with astropy (which is a limited and dated set of sites). If you think a site should be added, issue a pull request to the astropy-data repository .

Returns:

names : list of str

List of valid observatory names

See also

of_site: Gets the actual location object for one of the sites names this returns.

classmethod of_address(address, get_height=False)[source] [edit on github]¶

Return an object of this class for a given address by querying the Google maps geocoding API.

This is intended as a quick convenience function to get fast access to locations. In the background, this just issues a query to the Google maps geocoding API. It is not meant to be abused! Google uses IP-based query limiting and will ban your IP if you send more than a few thousand queries per hour [R5].

Warning

If the query returns more than one location (e.g., searching on address='springfield'), this function will use the first returned location.

Parameters:

address : str

The address to get the location for. As per the Google maps API, this can be a fully specified street address (e.g., 123 Main St., New York, NY) or a city name (e.g., Danbury, CT), or etc.

get_height : bool (optional)

Use the retrieved location to perform a second query to the Google maps elevation API to retrieve the height of the input address [R6].

Returns:

location : This class (a EarthLocation or subclass)

The location of the input address.

References

[R5]	(1, 2) https://developers.google.com/maps/documentation/geocoding/intro

[R6]	(1, 2) https://developers.google.com/maps/documentation/elevation/intro

classmethod of_site(site_name)[source] [edit on github]¶

Return an object of this class for a known observatory/site by name.

This is intended as a quick convenience function to get basic site information, not a fully-featured exhaustive registry of observatories and all their properties.

Note

When this function is called, it will attempt to download site information from the astropy data server. If you would like a site to be added, issue a pull request to the astropy-data repository . If a site cannot be found in the registry (i.e., an internet connection is not available), it will fall back on a built-in list, In the future, this bundled list might include a version-controlled list of canonical observatories extracted from the online version, but it currently only contains the Greenwich Royal Observatory as an example case.

Parameters:

site_name : str

Name of the observatory (case-insensitive).

Returns:

site : This class (a EarthLocation or subclass)

The location of the observatory.

Navigation

EarthLocation¶