MATLAB: Time increment and julian date

Question

Hello everyone,

Here is my problem:

First I have a departure date:

date_ = ( 2011 08 18) % initialize

Let's say I have a loop as well, and within this loop I need to convert from calendar date to Julian date since I am using this information later to determine the geocentric position of the Sun rsun_.

For t         = 0 : 30 min : 200 days % 200 days is the simulation time
        date_  = date_ + t_; % how to add 30 minutes for each iteration and 
                              keeping format (YYYY MM DD) for conversion to 
                              Julian date
        date__ = julian( date_ );
        rsun_   = ephemeris_sun( date__ );
        % after I can perform my calculations

My problem is: look comment in the loop.

Thanks a lot,

Rom

Answer 1

Create the initial date as a 1x6 vector:

od = [ 2011 08 18 0 0 0 ];

Then, to add 30 minutes at each iteration, add 30 to the fifth element:

od(5) = od(5) + 30;

now you can use juliandate to convert the information to a Julian date:

jd = juliandate(od);