This question has been asked before a little over three years ago. There was an answer given, however I've found a glitch in the solution.
Code below is in R. I've ported it to another language, however have tested the original code directly in R to ensure the issue wasn't with my porting.
sunPosition <- function(year, month, day, hour=12, min=0, sec=0,
lat=46.5, long=6.5) {
twopi <- 2 * pi
deg2rad <- pi / 180
# Get day of the year, e.g. Feb 1 = 32, Mar 1 = 61 on leap years
month.days <- c(0,31,28,31,30,31,30,31,31,30,31,30)
day <- day + cumsum(month.days)[month]
leapdays <- year %% 4 == 0 & (year %% 400 == 0 | year %% 100 != 0) & day >= 60
day[leapdays] <- day[leapdays] + 1
# Get Julian date - 2400000
hour <- hour + min / 60 + sec / 3600 # hour plus fraction
delta <- year - 1949
leap <- trunc(delta / 4) # former leapyears
jd <- 32916.5 + delta * 365 + leap + day + hour / 24
# The input to the Atronomer's almanach is the difference between
# the Julian date and JD 2451545.0 (noon, 1 January 2000)
time <- jd - 51545.
# Ecliptic coordinates
# Mean longitude
mnlong <- 280.460 + .9856474 * time
mnlong <- mnlong %% 360
mnlong[mnlong < 0] <- mnlong[mnlong < 0] + 360
# Mean anomaly
mnanom <- 357.528 + .9856003 * time
mnanom <- mnanom %% 360
mnanom[mnanom < 0] <- mnanom[mnanom < 0] + 360
mnanom <- mnanom * deg2rad
# Ecliptic longitude and obliquity of ecliptic
eclong <- mnlong + 1.915 * sin(mnanom) + 0.020 * sin(2 * mnanom)
eclong <- eclong %% 360
eclong[eclong < 0] <- eclong[eclong < 0] + 360
oblqec <- 23.429 - 0.0000004 * time
eclong <- eclong * deg2rad
oblqec <- oblqec * deg2rad
# Celestial coordinates
# Right ascension and declination
num <- cos(oblqec) * sin(eclong)
den <- cos(eclong)
ra <- atan(num / den)
ra[den < 0] <- ra[den < 0] + pi
ra[den >= 0 & num < 0] <- ra[den >= 0 & num < 0] + twopi
dec <- asin(sin(oblqec) * sin(eclong))
# Local coordinates
# Greenwich mean sidereal time
gmst <- 6.697375 + .0657098242 * time + hour
gmst <- gmst %% 24
gmst[gmst < 0] <- gmst[gmst < 0] + 24.
# Local mean sidereal time
lmst <- gmst + long / 15.
lmst <- lmst %% 24.
lmst[lmst < 0] <- lmst[lmst < 0] + 24.
lmst <- lmst * 15. * deg2rad
# Hour angle
ha <- lmst - ra
ha[ha < -pi] <- ha[ha < -pi] + twopi
ha[ha > pi] <- ha[ha > pi] - twopi
# Latitude to radians
lat <- lat * deg2rad
# Azimuth and elevation
el <- asin(sin(dec) * sin(lat) + cos(dec) * cos(lat) * cos(ha))
az <- asin(-cos(dec) * sin(ha) / cos(el))
elc <- asin(sin(dec) / sin(lat))
az[el >= elc] <- pi - az[el >= elc]
az[el <= elc & ha > 0] <- az[el <= elc & ha > 0] + twopi
el <- el / deg2rad
az <- az / deg2rad
lat <- lat / deg2rad
return(list(elevation=el, azimuth=az))
}
The problem I'm hitting is that the azimuth it returns seems wrong. For example, if I run the function on the (southern) summer solstice at 12:00 for locations 0ºE and 41ºS, 3ºS, 3ºN and 41ºN:
> sunPosition(2012,12,22,12,0,0,-41,0)
$elevation
[1] 72.42113
$azimuth
[1] 180.9211
> sunPosition(2012,12,22,12,0,0,-3,0)
$elevation
[1] 69.57493
$azimuth
[1] -0.79713
Warning message:
In asin(sin(dec)/sin(lat)) : NaNs produced
> sunPosition(2012,12,22,12,0,0,3,0)
$elevation
[1] 63.57538
$azimuth
[1] -0.6250971
Warning message:
In asin(sin(dec)/sin(lat)) : NaNs produced
> sunPosition(2012,12,22,12,0,0,41,0)
$elevation
[1] 25.57642
$azimuth
[1] 180.3084
These numbers just don't seem right. The elevation I'm happy with - the first two should be roughly the same, the third a touch lower, and the fourth much lower. However the first azimuth should be roughly due North, whereas the number it gives is the complete opposite. The remaining three should point roughly due South, however only the last one does. The two in the middle point just off North, again 180º out.
As you can see there are also a couple of errors triggered with the low latitudes (close the equator)
I believe the fault is in this section, with the error being triggered at the third line (starting with elc).
# Azimuth and elevation
el <- asin(sin(dec) * sin(lat) + cos(dec) * cos(lat) * cos(ha))
az <- asin(-cos(dec) * sin(ha) / cos(el))
elc <- asin(sin(dec) / sin(lat))
az[el >= elc] <- pi - az[el >= elc]
az[el <= elc & ha > 0] <- az[el <= elc & ha > 0] + twopi
I googled around and found a similar chunk of code in C, converted to R the line it uses to calculate the azimuth would be something like
az <- atan(sin(ha) / (cos(ha) * sin(lat) - tan(dec) * cos(lat)))
The output here seems to be heading in the right direction, but I just can't get it to give me the right answer all the time when it's converted back to degrees.
A correction of the code (suspect it's just the few lines above) to make it calculate the correct azimuth would be fantastic.
ephemmight even take into account refraction of the atmosphere (influenced by temperature, pressure) and elevation of an observer. – Sublingual