User's Guide

AUTOGEN

Automatic schedule generator/pass plotter

Function:

Generates a standard list of passes to be acquired for any valid satellite within a specified date and time range. The passes that have a time in view less than a specifed minimum time and the passes that have a distance from a target greater than a specified maximum distance will not be selected. AUTOGEN optionally allows the user to add the selected passes to the pass schedule file and also to plot the selected passes.

Updates to the master schedule file are accepted only if the program is executed on the acquisition system. If the plot option is selected and the program is not executed on a UNIX system, the plot file may be copied to one. In this case, a message is displayed describing such action (the user will need to log into the plotting system and run the PLOTPASS program).

Parameters:

SATID(--)
Satellite ID. The satellite whose passes will be scheduled.

  = N12:  NOAA-12
  = N14:  NOAA-14
  = N15:  NOAA-15
  = N16:  NOAA-16
  = N17:  NOAA-17
  = N18:  NOAA-18
  = N19:  NOAA-19

STADATE
Starting date. All passes between the starting date and the ending date will be scheduled for reception. The date should be entered as (mm dd yy), where the year may be a 2-digit or 4-digit year between 1986 and 1999 (e.g., 89 or 1989). See also STATIME and STOTIME to limit the time range of passes selected.

STODATE(--)
Stop date. All passes between the starting date and the ending date will be scheduled for reception. The date should be entered as (mm dd yy), where the year may be a 2-digit or 4-digit year between 1986 and 1999 (e.g., 89 or 1989). If defaulted, STODATE will be the same as STADATE; passes will be selected for that day only. Also see STATIME and STOTIME to limit the time range of passes selected.

STATIME(--)
Starting Greenwich Mean Time. All passes between the starting GMT and the ending GMT will be scheduled for reception. The default will set STATIME to the start of the time range for day passes at the default TARGET for the specified satellite. See User Note 2.

The value of 24 may not be used as an hour value. Midnight must be specified as (23 59 59) instead of (24 0 0).

STOTIME(--)
Ending Greenwich Mean Time. All passes between the starting GMT and the ending GMT will be scheduled for reception. The default will set STOTIME to the end of the time range for day passes at the default TARGET for the specified satellite. See User Note 2.

The value of 24 may not be used as an hour value. Midnight must be specified as (23 59 59) instead of (24 0 0).

UPDATFLG(NO)
Schedule update flag. Selected passes may be added to the master schedule only if AUTOGEN is executed on the acquisition system.

  = YES:  Add selected passes to the master schedule.
  = NO:   Do not add passes to the master schedule.

TARGET(43.74,-96.63)
Target location. The latitude and longitude, entered as decimal degrees, of the desired target location.

OPMODE(1)
Operation mode. The destination of the acquired data.


  = 0 :  No acquire
  = 1 :  Dish to disk
  = 2 :  Dish to tape
  = 3 :  Dish to both
  = 5 :  Tape to disk

MINTIME(0,1,0)
Minimum duration time. The time should be entered as (hour,min,sec). Only the passes longer than the minimum time specified will be selected.

VARTIME(--)
Variance time. The time should be entered as (hour,min,sec). The maximum variance time from the pass start time to the time of closest approach to the specified target. For example, VARTIME=(0,2,0) means the maximum length of the pass is two minutes on each side of the closest approach time. If defaulted, the length of the pass is limited only by the length of time the satellite is in view.

MAXMILE(1500.0)
Maximum nautical miles. Only the passes that are closer than the specified distance (nautical miles) will be selected.

PRINT(TERM)
Output destination. The destination of the schedule listing.

  = --:    No Report
  = TERM:  Output is sent to the user's terminal.
  = LP  :  Output is sent to the printer defined by
           $PRINTER.
  = File:  Output is sent to the user-supplied file
           with the extension ";prt".

Example:

  1. LAS> autogen satid=n11 stadate=(10 12 92) stodate=(10 15 92) statime=(12 0 0) stotime=(15 0 0) updatflg=yes mintime=(0 7 0)

    Passes between 12:00:00 and 15:00:00 on each day from 10/12/92 to 10/15/92 for NOAA-11 will be scheduled. To be selected, the pass must be a minimum of 7 minutes long. If running on the acquisition system, the master schedule will be updated with the passes selected.

  2. LAS> autogen satid=n12 stadate=(9 16 92) stodate=-- vartime=(0 7 30) maxmile=1000

    The day passes on 9/16/92 within 1000 nautical miles of the target will be scheduled for NOAA-12. The maximum pass length is 15:00 (7:30 on either side of the closest point to the target). If on a UNIX system, the passes that were selected will be plotted.

Description/Algorithm:

AUTOGEN first internally sets up a coverage circle surrounding the default target location. This circle is used to aid in defining the length of a pass by calculating when the satellite goes out of coverage range. If a different target location is used, the coverage circle is not used, and the length of the pass will be estimated. See User Note 1.

Each of the orbits for each day in the date range entered in STADATE and STODATE is examined. The pass in each orbit closest to the TARGET is calculated. A pass which is greater than MINTIME in length, within MXMILE nautical miles of the TARGET, and within the time range of STATIME to STOTIME will be selected for acquisition.

All passes for which the satellite is in view of the TARGET, including those selected, are written to a report. If AUTOGEN is executed on the acquisition system, the master schedule may be updated by setting UPDATFLG to "YES".

Nonfatal Error Message:

  1. [autogen-badsys] Updates to the schedule are not allowed on this system - UPDATFLG reset to NO

    AUTOGEN is not being run on the acquisition system; therefore, the master schedule will not be updated.

  2. [autogen-busy] Schedule file is being updated by another user Schedule updates not saved

    The master schedule file was previously locked and could not be updated. The passes selected by AUTOGEN were not saved in the schedule but are saved in the autogen.sch file in the current working directory. See the SCHEDIT User's Guide for information on using this file to update the master schedule.

Fatal Error Message:

  1. [autogen-day] Invalid day of month specified

    An invalid day of the month was specified in STADATE or STODATE. Ensure the day entered is valid for the month and year.

  2. [autogen-fatal] Fatal error encountered

    A fatal error was encountered. The preceding error message describes the error.

  3. [autogen-hour] Invalid hour specified

    An invalid integer hour was entered. Hours must be in the range of 0 to 23. To specify midnight, enter (23 59 59).

  4. [autogen-invlat] Invalid latitude value

    An invalid value was entered for the latitude of the TARGET. Ensure the latitude is specified in decimal degrees between -90.0 and +90.0.

  5. [autogen-month] Invalid month specified

    An invalid integer value was entered for the month. The month must be between 1 and 12.

  6. [autogen-numparm] Invalid number of parameters for <XXX>

    The specified date or time parameter had an invalid number of entries. The parameter must have 0 entries (NULL), or 3 entries ((hh mm ss) or (mm dd yy)).

  7. [autogen-time] Stop time is before start time

    The stop time on the last day of the range is before the start time of the first day of the range. Make sure STADATE/STATIME comes before STODATE/STOTIME. To specify a time range over midnight, STODATE must be at least one day after STADATE.

  8. [autogen-year] Invalid year specified

    An invalid integer was entered for the year. Verify that the year is a 2-digit integer within the range 86-99 or a 4-digit integer within the range 1986-1999.

User Notes:

  1. The coverage circle is used to coincide with the default target location, as a two-degree circle around the target. If a different target location is used, AUTOGEN will work correctly but with less accuracy of pass length. If another target is to be used frequently, it is recommended that a new coverage circle be created to surround it. Contact Software Development for further details.

  2. Default values for STATIME and STOTIME will result in scheduling only the day passes for the specified satellite. The equivalent times are:

        SATELLITE		STATIME		STOTIME
         NOAA-09		(18 0 0)	(23 59 59)
         NOAA-10		(12 0 0)	(16 30 0)
         NOAA-11		(16 0 0)	(23 59 59)
         NOAA-12		(12 0 0)	(16 30 0)