MAXI Mission Epoch (gdt.missions.maxi.time)

The MAXI Mission time is typically expressed as the number of seconds elapsed since January 1, 2000 00:00:00 UTC in the Terrestrial Time scale. We have defined a specialized epoch to work with Astropy Time objects so that the MAXI mission time can be easily converted to/from other formats and time scales.

To use this, we simply import and create an astropy Time object with a ‘maxi’ format:

>>> from gdt.missions.maxi.time import Time
>>> maxi_met = Time(556288865.0, format='maxi')
>>> maxi_met
<Time object: scale='tt' format='maxi' value=556288865.0>

Now, say we want to retrieve the GPS timestamp:

>>> maxi_met.gps
1187008878.0

The Astropy Time object readily converts it for us. We can also do the reverse conversion:

>>> gps_time = Time(maxi_met.gps, format='gps')
>>> gps_time
<Time object: scale='tai' format='gps' value=1187008878.0>

>>> gps_time.maxi
556288865.0

And we should, of course, get back the MAXI mission time we started with. This enables you do do any time conversions already provided by Astropy, as well as time conversions between other missions within the GDT.

In addition to time conversions, all time formatting available in Astropy is also available here. For example, we can format the MAXI mission time in ISO format:

>>> maxi_met.iso
'2017-08-17 12:42:09.184'

Reference/API

gdt.missions.maxi.time Module

Classes

MaxiSecTime(val1, val2, scale, precision, ...)	Represents the number of seconds elapsed since Jan 1, 2000, 00:00:00 UTC, including leap seconds
Time(val[, val2, format, scale, precision, ...])	Represent and manipulate times and dates for astronomy.

Class Inheritance Diagram