Position of the sun given time of day, latitude and longitude

Question

This question has been asked before a little over three years ago. There was an answer given, however I\'ve found a glitch in the solution.

Code below is in R. I\'ve

Answer 1

Here's a rewrite in that's more idiomatic to R, and easier to debug and maintain. It is essentially Josh's answer, but with azimuth calculated using both Josh and Charlie's algorithms for comparison. I've also included the simplifications to the date code from my other answer. The basic principle was to split the code up into lots of smaller functions that you can more easily write unit tests for.

astronomersAlmanacTime <- function(x)
{
  # Astronomer's almanach time is the number of 
  # days since (noon, 1 January 2000)
  origin <- as.POSIXct("2000-01-01 12:00:00")
  as.numeric(difftime(x, origin, units = "days"))
}

hourOfDay <- function(x)
{
  x <- as.POSIXlt(x)
  with(x, hour + min / 60 + sec / 3600)
}

degreesToRadians <- function(degrees)
{
  degrees * pi / 180
}

radiansToDegrees <- function(radians)
{
  radians * 180 / pi
}

meanLongitudeDegrees <- function(time)
{
  (280.460 + 0.9856474 * time) %% 360
}

meanAnomalyRadians <- function(time)
{
  degreesToRadians((357.528 + 0.9856003 * time) %% 360)
}

eclipticLongitudeRadians <- function(mnlong, mnanom)
{
  degreesToRadians(
      (mnlong + 1.915 * sin(mnanom) + 0.020 * sin(2 * mnanom)) %% 360
  )
}

eclipticObliquityRadians <- function(time)
{
  degreesToRadians(23.439 - 0.0000004 * time)
}

rightAscensionRadians <- function(oblqec, eclong)
{
  num <- cos(oblqec) * sin(eclong)
  den <- cos(eclong)
  ra <- atan(num / den)
  ra[den < 0] <- ra[den < 0] + pi
  ra[den >= 0 & num < 0] <- ra[den >= 0 & num < 0] + 2 * pi 
  ra
}

rightDeclinationRadians <- function(oblqec, eclong)
{
  asin(sin(oblqec) * sin(eclong))
}

greenwichMeanSiderealTimeHours <- function(time, hour)
{
  (6.697375 + 0.0657098242 * time + hour) %% 24
}

localMeanSiderealTimeRadians <- function(gmst, long)
{
  degreesToRadians(15 * ((gmst + long / 15) %% 24))
}

hourAngleRadians <- function(lmst, ra)
{
  ((lmst - ra + pi) %% (2 * pi)) - pi
}

elevationRadians <- function(lat, dec, ha)
{
  asin(sin(dec) * sin(lat) + cos(dec) * cos(lat) * cos(ha))
}

solarAzimuthRadiansJosh <- function(lat, dec, ha, el)
{
  az <- asin(-cos(dec) * sin(ha) / cos(el))
  cosAzPos <- (0 <= sin(dec) - sin(el) * sin(lat))
  sinAzNeg <- (sin(az) < 0)
  az[cosAzPos & sinAzNeg] <- az[cosAzPos & sinAzNeg] + 2 * pi
  az[!cosAzPos] <- pi - az[!cosAzPos]
  az
}

solarAzimuthRadiansCharlie <- function(lat, dec, ha)
{
  zenithAngle <- acos(sin(lat) * sin(dec) + cos(lat) * cos(dec) * cos(ha))
  az <- acos((sin(lat) * cos(zenithAngle) - sin(dec)) / (cos(lat) * sin(zenithAngle)))
  ifelse(ha > 0, az + pi, 3 * pi - az) %% (2 * pi)
}

sunPosition <- function(when = Sys.time(), format, lat = 46.5, long = 6.5) 
{    
  if(is.character(when)) when <- strptime(when, format)
  when <- lubridate::with_tz(when, "UTC")
  time <- astronomersAlmanacTime(when)
  hour <- hourOfDay(when)

  # Ecliptic coordinates  
  mnlong <- meanLongitudeDegrees(time)   
  mnanom <- meanAnomalyRadians(time)  
  eclong <- eclipticLongitudeRadians(mnlong, mnanom)     
  oblqec <- eclipticObliquityRadians(time)

  # Celestial coordinates
  ra <- rightAscensionRadians(oblqec, eclong)
  dec <- rightDeclinationRadians(oblqec, eclong)

  # Local coordinates
  gmst <- greenwichMeanSiderealTimeHours(time, hour)  
  lmst <- localMeanSiderealTimeRadians(gmst, long)

  # Hour angle
  ha <- hourAngleRadians(lmst, ra)

  # Latitude to radians
  lat <- degreesToRadians(lat)

  # Azimuth and elevation
  el <- elevationRadians(lat, dec, ha)
  azJ <- solarAzimuthRadiansJosh(lat, dec, ha, el)
  azC <- solarAzimuthRadiansCharlie(lat, dec, ha)

  data.frame(
      elevation = radiansToDegrees(el), 
      azimuthJ  = radiansToDegrees(azJ),
      azimuthC  = radiansToDegrees(azC)
  )
}