pysatMissions

pysatMissions allows users to run build simulated satellites for Two-Line Elements (TLE) and add empirical data. It includes the missions_ephem and mission_sgp4 instrument modules which can be imported into pysat.

Main Features

• Simulate satellite orbits from TLEs and add data from empirical models
• Import magnetic coordinates through apexpy and aacgmv2 (optional install)

Documentation

Full Documentation for main package

Installation

Prerequisites

pysatMissions uses common Python modules, as well as modules developed by and for the Space Physics community. This module officially supports Python 3.8+.

One way to install is through pip. Just type

pip install pysatMissions

into the terminal.

Or, if you prefer to work directly from github, checkout the repository:

git clone https://github.com/pysat/pysatMissions.git

Change directories into the repository folder and run the setup.py file. For a local install use the "--user" flag after "install".

cd pysatMissions/
pip install .

Note: pre-1.0.0 version

pysatMissions is currently in an initial development phase and requires pysat 3.0.4.

Using with pysat

The instrument modules are portable and designed to be run like any pysat instrument.

import pysat
from pysatMissions.instruments import missions_sgp4

sim_inst = pysat.Instrument(inst_module=missions_sgp4)

Another way to use the instruments in an external repository is to register the instruments. This only needs to be done the first time you load an instrument. Afterward, pysat will identify them using the platform and name keywords.

import pysat
import pysatMissions

pysat.utils.registry.register_by_module(pysatMissions.instruments)
sim_inst = pysat.Instrument('missions', 'sgp4')

Optional modules

Magnetic vector coordinates through apexpy and aacgmv2 are set up as optional installs. Both packages require fortran to install properly, and may require additional configuration. Both can be installed from pip, but may require the --no-binary option depending on your system.

The instrument missions_ephem has been deprecated since pyEphem is no longer maintained. This will be removed in v0.4.0. Note that OMMBV is required for this instrument to function correctly, but is not required for the core pysatMissions package. This has also been made optional to improve installation.
Please use the missions_sgp4 instrument for future needs.

The orbital trajectories can be calculated without any of the optional modules.