Abstract
The International Astronomical Union’s (IAU) SOFA collection of ANSI C and Fortran software provides users with a library of routines that implement official International Astronomical Union (IAU) algorithms for fundamental astronomy computations. These include routines for Earth rotation, precession, nutation, polar motion, coordinate conversions, and astrometry, to list a few. The routines form the various parts of the transformation between the International Terrestrial Reference System (ITRS) and the Celestial Reference System, either the Geocentric (GCRS), Barycentric (BCRS), or the International (ICRS) Celestial Reference System. Most require input parameters that include an “instant”—a time and date in the appropriate time scale. This poster highlights the routines in the categories Time Scales and Calendars, which transform between the time scales UTC, UT1, TAI, TT, TDB, TCB, and TCG as well as provide civil and Julian date conversions.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Acknowledgments
We thank and acknowledge the work of the Board members and their institutes. We are also grateful to the UK Hydrographic Office for hosting the SOFA website. The SOFA Board members are:
John Bangert, US Naval Observatory (retired)
Steven Bell, HM Nautical Almanac Office, UKHO
Nicole Capitaine, Paris Observatory
William Folkner, Jet Propulsion Laboratory
Mickaël Gastineau, Paris Observatory, IMCCE
Catherine Hohenkerk, HM Nautical Almanac Office (Chair)
Jinling Li, Shanghai Astronomical Observatory
Brian Luzum, US Naval Observatory (IERS)
Zinovy Malkin, Pulkovo Observatory, St. Petersburg
Jeffrey Percival, University of Wisconsin
Wendy Puatua, US Naval Observatory
Scott Ransom, National Radio Astronomy Observatory
Patrick Wallace, RAL Space (retired)
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2017 Springer International Publishing AG
About this paper
Cite this paper
Hohenkerk, C. (2017). IAU Standards of Fundamental Astronomy (SOFA): Time and Date. In: Arias, E., Combrinck, L., Gabor, P., Hohenkerk, C., Seidelmann, P. (eds) The Science of Time 2016. Astrophysics and Space Science Proceedings, vol 50. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-59909-0_21
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-59909-0_21
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-59908-3
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-59909-0
eBook Packages: Physics and AstronomyPhysics and Astronomy (R0)