Data Provider Groups | Data Provider Elements

Heliocentric Classical Elements

Classical osculating orbital elements, sometimes referred to as Keplerian elements, for the true position and velocity of a planet, computed with respect to the Sun in the specified coordinate system.

Available for these objects: Planet

Type: Time-varying data.

Availability: Reports | Graphs | Dynamic Displays | Strip Charts

Data Provider Groups

Data can be requested in a variety of coordinate systems, where the origin of the coordinate system is the Sun.

The following lists the systems available for Sun.

Name	Description
ICRF	International Celestial Reference Frame. The ICRF axes are defined as the inertial (i.e., kinematically non-rotating) axes associated with a general relativity frame centered at the solar system barycenter (often called the BCRF).
MeanOfDate	The mean equator mean equinox coordinate system evaluated at the requested time.
TrueOfDate	The true equator true equinox coordinate system evaluated at the requested time.
TrueOfEpoch	The true equator true equinox coordinate system evaluated at the epoch of the object.
J2000_Ecliptic	The ecliptic plane (nominally, the plane containing the Earth and Sun) as defined at the J2000 epoch (the ecliptic pole is the mean rotational axis of the Earth at the J2000 Epoch).
TrueEclipticOfDate	Coordinate system located at the central body center and aligned with true ecliptic of date coordinate axes.
EclipticJ2000ICRF	An ecliptic system defined as the rotation of the ICRF axes about the ICRF x-axis by the FK5 IAU76 value of the mean obliquity at the J2000.0 epoch (i.e., 84381.448 arcsecs). The XY-plane is the ecliptic plane.
J2000	The mean equator mean equinox coordinate system evaluated at the J2000.0 epoch (2000 January 1.5 TDB = JD 2451545.0 TDB).

Data Provider Elements

Name	Dimension	Type	Description
Time	Date	Real Number or Text	Time.
Semi-major Axis	Distance	Real Number	A measure of the size of the orbit. Orbits with eccentricity <1 are ellipses, with major and minor axes identifying the symmetry axes of the ellipse, the major axis being the longer one. The value is half the length of the major axis.
Eccentricity	Unitless	Real Number	A measure of the shape of the orbit. Values <1 indicate an ellipse (where zero is a circular orbit) and values >1 indicate a hyperbola.
Inclination	Angle	Real Number or Text	The angle between the orbit plane and the XY plane of the coordinate system.
RAAN	Longitude	Real Number or Text	The angle in the XY plane from the X axis to the ascending node, measured in a right-handed sense about the Z axis. in the equatorial plane. For equatorial orbits, the ascending node is defined to be directed along the positive X axis, and thus the value is 0.0.
Arg of Perigee	Angle	Real Number or Text	The angle from the ascending node to the periapsis vector measured in the orbit plane in the direction of the object's motion. The periapsis vector locates the closest point of the orbit. For a circular orbit, the value is defined to be zero (i.e., periapsis at the ascending node).
True Anomaly	Angle	Real Number or Text	The angle from the periapsis vector, measured in the orbit plane in the direction of motion, to the position vector.
Mean Anomaly	Angle	Real Number or Text	A measure of the time past periapsis passing, expressed as an angle.