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GET_DATE
Return the (current) UTC date in CCYY-MM-DD format for FITS headers
This is the format required by the DATE and DATE-OBS keywords in a FITS header.
GET_DATE, FITS_date, [ in_date, /OLD, /TIMETAG, LOCAL_DIFF=]
in_date - string (scalar or vector) containing dates in IDL systime() format (e.g. 'Tue Sep 25 14:56:14 2001')
FITS_date = A scalar character string giving the current date. Actual appearance of dte depends on which keywords are supplied. No Keywords supplied - dte is a 10 character string with the format CCYY-MM-DD whererepresents a calendar year, the ordinal number of a calendar month within the calendar year, and the ordinal number of a day within the calendar month. /TIMETAG set - dte is a 19 character string with the format CCYY-MM-DDThh:mm:ss where represents the hour in the day, the minutes, the seconds, and the literal 'T' the ISO 8601 time designator /OLD set - dte is an 8 character string in DD/MM/YY format
/TIMETAG - Specify the time to the nearest second in the DATE format /OLD - Return the DATE format formerly (pre-1997) recommended for FITS Note that this format is now deprecated because it uses only a 2 digit representation of the year. LOCAL_DIFF - numeric scalar giving the difference between local time and Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) in hours. This keyword is only needed for non-Unix users prior to V5.4. Unix users should not use this keyword because under Unix (or since V5.4 with any OS), SYSTIME(1) returns the UTC (=GMT) time directly. Users on other machines must either supply a LOCAL_DIFF keyword, or use the TIME_CONV environment variable discussed below. For example, a user on U.S. Eastern Standard Time should set LOCAL_DIFF = -5
Add the current date to the DATE keyword in a FITS header,h IDL> GET_DATE,dte IDL> sxaddpar, h, 'DATE', dte, 'Date header was created'
An alternate method of inputing the difference between local and GMT time for non-Unix machines is to specify this information in a file named local_diff.dat in a directory specified with the environment variable TIME_CONV. For example, a user in EST should write -5 on this first (and only) line of this file.
(1) A discussion of the DATExxx syntax in FITS headers can be found in http://www.cv.nrao.edu/fits/documents/standards/year2000.txt (2) Those who wish to use need further flexibility in their date formats (e.g. to use TAI time) should look at Bill Thompson's time routines in http://sohowww.nascom.nasa.gov/solarsoft/gen/idl/time
DAYCNV - Convert Julian date to Gregorian calendar date
Written W. Landsman March 1991 Major rewrite to write new DATExxx syntax W. Landsman August 1997 Converted to IDL V5.0 W. Landsman September 1997 Work after year 2000 even with /OLD keyword W. Landsman January 2000 Don't need to worry about TIME_DIFF since V5.4 W. Landsman July 2001
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