Dealing with time in IDL using the JHU/APL/S1R library

Overview

The intrinsic IDL tools for dealing with time have been greatly extended by additional routines available in the JHU/APL/S1R IDL library. This document describes these extended capabilities.

The JHU/APL/S1R IDL library is available by anonymous ftp.

Table of Contents

• Finding the current time
  • Obtaining a string with the current date and time.
  • Finding the number of seconds between local and Universal time.
  • Finding Local Mean Sidereal Time.
  • Draw a map showing the sunlit earth.
• Timing program execution
  • Using the built-in systime() routine.
  • Using the timer utility.
• Working with dates and times
  • Time units, date systems.
  • Routine naming conventions.
  • Date strings, Date/Time strings, Time strings.
  • Complete time.
  • Calendar functions.
  • One line descriptions.
    • Date only, complete time, time only
    • Calendar related routines, Time series support.
• Working with time series data
  • The problem with time.
  • A proposed new standard time system (JS).
  • Formatting date/time strings.
  • Formatting fractions of a second.
  • Plotting time series data.
  • Displaying time series image data.
  • Dealing with periodic data.
  • Interactive measurement of time series plots on the screen.
• Other time related IDL software on the net
  • Bill Thompson's time routines
    • By Bill Thompson (Applied Research Corporation)
    • Convert between International Atomic Time (TAI) and Universal Time.

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