Index Page ltime_c

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X

Procedure Abstract Required_Reading Keywords Brief_I/O Detailed_Input | Detailed_Output Parameters Exceptions Files Particulars Examples | Restrictions Literature_References Author_and_Institution Version Index_Entries

#### Procedure

       void ltime_c ( SpiceDouble        etobs,
                      SpiceInt           obs,
                      ConstSpiceChar   * dir,
                      SpiceInt           targ,
                      SpiceDouble      * ettarg,
                      SpiceDouble      * elapsd  )

#### Abstract

       This routine computes the transmit (or receive) time
       of a signal at a specified target, given the receive
       (or transmit) time at a specified observer. The elapsed
       time between transmit and receive is also returned.

#### Required_Reading

        None.

#### Keywords

         SPK

#### Brief_I/O

        VARIABLE  I/O  DESCRIPTION
        --------  ---  --------------------------------------------------
        etobs      I   Epoch of a signal at some observer
        obs        I   NAIF ID of some observer
        dir        I   Direction the signal travels ( "->" or "<-" )
        targ       I   NAIF ID of the target object
        ettarg     O   Epoch of the signal at the target
        elapsd     O   Time between transmit and receipt of the signal

#### Detailed_Input

       etobs       is an epoch expressed in ephemeris seconds (TDB)
                   past the epoch of the J2000 reference system.
                   This is the time at which an electromagnetic
                   signal is "at" the observer.

       obs         is the NAIF ID of some observer.

       dir         is the direction the signal travels.  The
                   acceptable values are "->" and "<-".  When
                   you read the calling sequence from left to
                   right, the "arrow" given by DIR indicates
                   which way the electromagnetic signal is traveling.

                   If the argument list reads as below,

                    ..., obs, "->", targ, ...

                   the signal is traveling from the observer to the
                   target.

                   If the argument reads as

                    ..., obs, "<-", targ

                   the signal is traveling from the target to
                   the observer.

       targ        is the NAIF ID of the target.

#### Detailed_Output

       ettarg      is the epoch, expressed in ephemeris seconds
                   past J2000 TDB, at which the electromagnetic signal is
                   "at" the target body.

                   Note ettarg is computed using only Newtonian
                   assumptions about the propagation of light.

       elapsd      is the number of ephemeris seconds (TDB) between
                   transmission and receipt of the signal.

                      elapsd = fabs( etobs - ettarg )

#### Parameters

        None.

#### Exceptions

       1) If dir is not one of "->" or "<-" the error SPICE(BADDIRECTION)
          will be signalled.  In this case ettarg and elapsd will not be
          modified.

       2)
          If insufficient ephemeris information is available to compute the
          outputs ettarg and elapsd, or if observer or target are not
          recognized, the problem is diagnosed by a routine in the call
          tree of this routine.

          In this case, the value of ettarg will be set to etobs
          and elapsd will be set to zero.

#### Files

        None.

#### Particulars

       Suppose a radio signal travels between two solar system objects.
       Given an ephemeris for the two objects, which way the signal is
       traveling, and the time when the signal is "at" at one of the
       objects (the observer obs), this routine determines when the signal
       is "at" the other object (the target targ).  It also returns the
       elapsed time between transmission and receipt of the signal.

#### Examples

       1) Suppose a signal is transmitted at time et from the Goldstone
          tracking site (ID code 399001) to a spacecraft whose ID code
          is -77.

             signal traveling to spacecraft
             *  -._.-._.-._.-._.-._.-._.-._.-._.->  *

             Goldstone (obs=399001)            Spacecraft (targ = -77)
             at epoch etobs(given)             at epoch ettarg(unknown)

          Assuming that all of the required SPICE kernels have been
          loaded, the code fragment below shows how to compute the
          time (arrive) at which the signal arrives at the spacecraft
          and how long (howlng) it took the signal to reach the spacecraft.
          (Note that we display the arrival time as the number of seconds
          past J2000.)

             #include <stdio.h>
             #include "SpiceUsr.h"
                   .
                   .
                   .
             #define  OBS            399001
             #define  TARG           -77
             #define  LENOUT         81
             #define  OBSUTC         "1999 May 25"
             #define  LSK            "leapseconds.ker"

             SpiceChar               timestr [ LENOUT ];

             SpiceDouble             arrive;
             SpiceDouble             howlng;
             SpiceDouble             etobs;
             SpiceDouble             sent;

             [ load kernels ]

             str2et_c ( OBSUTC, &etobs );

             ltime_c ( etobs,   OBS,    "->",   TARG,  &arrive, &howlng );
             etcal_c ( arrive,  LENOUT, timestr );

             printf ( "The signal arrived at time: %s\n",       timestr );
             printf ( "It took %15.6f seconds to get there.\n", howlng  );

       2) Suppose a signal is received at the Goldstone tracking sight
          at epoch ET from the spacecraft of the previous example.

                  signal sent from spacecraft
             *  <-._.-._.-._.-._.-._.-._.-._.-._.- *

             Goldstone (OBS=399001)               Spacecraft (TARG = -77)
             at epoch ETOBS(given)                at epoch ETTARG(unknown)

          Again assuming that all the required kernels have been loaded
          the code fragment below computes the epoch at which the
          signal was transmitted from the spacecraft.

             ltime_c ( etobs,   OBS,    "<-",   TARG,  &sent, &howlng );
             etcal_c ( sent,    LENOUT, timestr );

             printf ( "The signal was transmitted at: %s\n",    timestr );
             printf ( "It took %15.6f seconds to get there.\n", howlng );

       3) Suppose there is a transponder on board the spacecraft of
          the previous examples that transmits a signal back to the
          sender exactly 1 microsecond after a signal arrives at
          the spacecraft.  If we send a signal from Goldstone
          to the spacecraft and wait to receive it at Canberra.
          What will be the epoch at which the return signal arrives
          in Canberra? ( The ID code for Canberra is 399002 ).

          Again, assuming we've loaded all the necessary kernels,
          the fragment below will give us the answer.

             #define   GSTONE        399001
             #define   SC            -77
             #define   CANBER        399002

             str2et_c ( OBSUTC, &etgold );

             ltime_c ( etgold, GSTONE, "->", SC, &scget, &lt1 );

             /.
             Account for the microsecond delay between receipt and
             transmission.
             ./
             scsend = scget + 0.000001;

             ltime_c ( scsend, SC, "->", CANBER, &etcanb, &lt2 );

             rndtrp = etcanb - etgold;

             printf ( "The  signal arrives in Canberra at ET: %15.6f\n"
                      "Round trip time for the signal was:    %15.6f\n",
                      etcanb,
                      rndtrp                                            );

#### Restrictions

       None.

#### Literature_References

        None.

#### Author_and_Institution

        N.J. Bachman    (JPL)
        W.L. Taber      (JPL)

#### Version

       -CSPICE Version 1.0.1, 09-NOV-2006   (NJB)

          Corrected a reference to the function j2000_c; this had been
          erroneously changed from the name J2000 to j2000_c
          during translation from Fortran.

          Re-ordered header sections to conform to standard.

       -CSPICE Version 1.0.0, 29-MAY-1999 (WLT) (NJB)

#### Index_Entries

       Compute uplink and downlink light time

#### Link to routine ltime_c source file ltime_c.c

    Wed Apr  5 17:54:38 2017