Calulating sunrise and sunset in Python

I expected to find dozens of readily available implementations of sunrise and sunset calculations in Python on the web but this turned out to be a disappointment. Therefore I resolved to write my own straightforward implementation.

The sunrise equation is pretty easy to find on Wikipedia but actual implementations are not, certainly not in Python 3.x. (If you are willing to stick to Python 2.x there is of course the excellent PyEphem package, see the end of this article) Fortunately NOAA provides annotated equations in the form of an OpenOffice spreadsheet. This allows for simple re-engineering in Python and gives us a way to verify the results of a new implementation against those in the spreadsheet.

If you save the code below as sunrise.py then calculating the time of sunrise today would be straightforward as shown in this example:

 import datetime
 import sunrise
 s = sun(lat=49,long=3)
 print('sunrise at ',s.sunrise(when=datetime.datetime.now())

The sun class also provides a sunset() method and solarnoon() method. All three methods take a when parameter that should be a datetime.datetime object. If this object contains timezone information or daylight saving time information, this information is used when calculating the times of sunrise, sunset and the solar noon.

Note that if no when parameter is given, a default datetime is used that is initialized with a LocalTimezone object from the timezone module. I have not provided that module here but you can implement one simple enough by copying the example in Python's documentation or you can comment out the import statement below and always supply a when parameter.

from math import cos,sin,acos,asin,tan
from math import degrees as deg, radians as rad
from datetime import date,datetime,time

# this module is not provided here. See text.
from timezone import LocalTimezone

class sun:
 """ 
 Calculate sunrise and sunset based on equations from NOAA
 http://www.srrb.noaa.gov/highlights/sunrise/calcdetails.html

 typical use, calculating the sunrise at the present day:
 
 import datetime
 import sunrise
 s = sun(lat=49,long=3)
 print('sunrise at ',s.sunrise(when=datetime.datetime.now())
 """
 def __init__(self,lat=52.37,long=4.90): # default Amsterdam
  self.lat=lat
  self.long=long
  
 def sunrise(self,when=None):
  """
  return the time of sunrise as a datetime.time object
  when is a datetime.datetime object. If none is given
  a local time zone is assumed (including daylight saving
  if present)
  """
  if when is None : when = datetime.now(tz=LocalTimezone())
  self.__preptime(when)
  self.__calc()
  return sun.__timefromdecimalday(self.sunrise_t)
  
 def sunset(self,when=None):
  if when is None : when = datetime.now(tz=LocalTimezone())
  self.__preptime(when)
  self.__calc()
  return sun.__timefromdecimalday(self.sunset_t)
  
 def solarnoon(self,when=None):
  if when is None : when = datetime.now(tz=LocalTimezone())
  self.__preptime(when)
  self.__calc()
  return sun.__timefromdecimalday(self.solarnoon_t)
  
 @staticmethod
 def __timefromdecimalday(day):
  """
  returns a datetime.time object.
  
  day is a decimal day between 0.0 and 1.0, e.g. noon = 0.5
  """
  hours  = 24.0*day
  h      = int(hours)
  minutes= (hours-h)*60
  m      = int(minutes)
  seconds= (minutes-m)*60
  s      = int(seconds)
  return time(hour=h,minute=m,second=s)

 def __preptime(self,when):
  """
  Extract information in a suitable format from when, 
  a datetime.datetime object.
  """
  # datetime days are numbered in the Gregorian calendar
  # while the calculations from NOAA are distibuted as
  # OpenOffice spreadsheets with days numbered from
  # 1/1/1900. The difference are those numbers taken for 
  # 18/12/2010
  self.day = when.toordinal()-(734124-40529)
  t=when.time()
  self.time= (t.hour + t.minute/60.0 + t.second/3600.0)/24.0
  
  self.timezone=0
  offset=when.utcoffset()
  if not offset is None:
   self.timezone=offset.seconds/3600.0
  
 def __calc(self):
  """
  Perform the actual calculations for sunrise, sunset and
  a number of related quantities.
  
  The results are stored in the instance variables
  sunrise_t, sunset_t and solarnoon_t
  """
  timezone = self.timezone # in hours, east is positive
  longitude= self.long     # in decimal degrees, east is positive
  latitude = self.lat      # in decimal degrees, north is positive

  time  = self.time # percentage past midnight, i.e. noon  is 0.5
  day      = self.day     # daynumber 1=1/1/1900
 
  Jday     =day+2415018.5+time-timezone/24 # Julian day
  Jcent    =(Jday-2451545)/36525    # Julian century

  Manom    = 357.52911+Jcent*(35999.05029-0.0001537*Jcent)
  Mlong    = 280.46646+Jcent*(36000.76983+Jcent*0.0003032)%360
  Eccent   = 0.016708634-Jcent*(0.000042037+0.0001537*Jcent)
  Mobliq   = 23+(26+((21.448-Jcent*(46.815+Jcent*(0.00059-Jcent*0.001813))))/60)/60
  obliq    = Mobliq+0.00256*cos(rad(125.04-1934.136*Jcent))
  vary     = tan(rad(obliq/2))*tan(rad(obliq/2))
  Seqcent  = sin(rad(Manom))*(1.914602-Jcent*(0.004817+0.000014*Jcent))+sin(rad(2*Manom))*(0.019993-0.000101*Jcent)+sin(rad(3*Manom))*0.000289
  Struelong= Mlong+Seqcent
  Sapplong = Struelong-0.00569-0.00478*sin(rad(125.04-1934.136*Jcent))
  declination = deg(asin(sin(rad(obliq))*sin(rad(Sapplong))))
  
  eqtime   = 4*deg(vary*sin(2*rad(Mlong))-2*Eccent*sin(rad(Manom))+4*Eccent*vary*sin(rad(Manom))*cos(2*rad(Mlong))-0.5*vary*vary*sin(4*rad(Mlong))-1.25*Eccent*Eccent*sin(2*rad(Manom)))

  hourangle= deg(acos(cos(rad(90.833))/(cos(rad(latitude))*cos(rad(declination)))-tan(rad(latitude))*tan(rad(declination))))

  self.solarnoon_t=(720-4*longitude-eqtime+timezone*60)/1440
  self.sunrise_t  =self.solarnoon_t-hourangle*4/1440
  self.sunset_t   =self.solarnoon_t+hourangle*4/1440

if __name__ == "__main__":
 s=sun(lat=52.37,long=4.90)
 print(datetime.today())
 print(s.sunrise(),s.solarnoon(),s.sunset())

For people willing to stick to Python 2.x there is a simple and good alternative in the form of the PyEphem package. It can do a lot more than just calculating sunsise. An example is shown below.

import ephem
o=ephem.Observer()
o.lat='49'
o.long='3'
s=ephem.Sun()
s.compute()
print ephem.localtime(o.next_rising(s))