Ground Track (ground_track)

Plots the ground track of an orbit given its planetodetic coordinates (i.e. planetodetic latitude and longitude).

ground_track

Plots the ground track of an orbit given its planetodetic coordinates (i.e. planetodetic latitude and longitude).

Syntax

ground_track(lat,lon)
ground_track(lat,lon,opts)
ground_track(__,planet)

Description

ground_track(lat,lon) plots the ground track of an orbit around the Earth, superimposed on a map of the Earth, where the map just shows the coastlines. lat and lon are vectors of geodetic latitude and longitude values (in degrees). By default, the ground track is drawn in blue with a line width of 1.5.

ground_track(lat,lon,opts) does the same as the syntax above, but allows for the specification of optional plotting parameters. opts is a struct that has the following fields:

• Color → specifies line color
• LineWidth → specifies line width
• LineStyle → specifies line style

ground_track(__,planet) draws the ground track of an orbit around the celestial body specified by planet. planet can be specified as 'Blank' (plots ground track over blank background), 'Sun', 'Moon', 'Mercury', 'Venus', 'Earth', Earth Cloudy, 'Earth Coastlines', 'Earth Night', 'Earth Night Cloudy', 'Mars', 'Jupiter', 'Saturn', 'Uranus', 'Neptune', or 'Pluto'. Note that if you are specifying planet, but choosing not to specify the optional parameters (opts), use the syntax ground_track(lat,lon,[],planet).

Note

• All fields of opts do NOT have to be defined; when a field is left undefined, the rest of the plot settings are set to default values.

Examples and Image Sources

• See "EXAMPLES.mlx" or the "Examples" tab on the File Exchange page for examples.
• See "Ground_Track_Image_Sources.pdf" (also included with download) for the image sources.

Installation

• Open "Ground Track (ground_track).mltbx" in the "INSTALL" folder to install as a toolbox. MATLAB will automatically perform the installation and add the function and all the images to the MATLAB search path.
• Alternatively, the "ground_track" folder can be copy and pasted into the folder containing the script that you want to use the function in. At the beginning of the script, include "addpath('ground_track')" to add the function and all the images to the MATLAB search path.