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Times parameter description for solar position algorithms

Open AdamRJensen opened this issue 4 months ago • 0 comments

pvlib currently uses variants of the following description for the times parameter in the solar position algorithms:

times : pandas.DatetimeIndex
    Must be localized or UTC will be assumed.

However, times should actually be UT1!

UTC has been maintained within ±0.9 of UT1 since 1970 ish by adding leap seconds. However, prior to 1970s there are large deviations between UTC and UT1, and there may be in the future too. Therefore, I think it's wise to update the times parameter to something along the lines of:

times : pandas.DatetimeIndex
    Must be localized or UTC/UT1 will be assumed. Prior to 1970 and far in
    the future UTC and UT1 may deviate significantly and in such cases
    UT1 times should be provided.

AdamRJensen avatar Sep 28 '24 16:09 AdamRJensen