Package ‘lunar’

February 20, 2015

Type Package
Title Lunar Phase & Distance, Seasons and Other Environmental Factors
Author Emmanuel Lazaridis [aut, cre]
Maintainer Emmanuel Lazaridis <emmanuel@lazaridis.eu>
Depends R (>= 2.10.0)
Description Provides functions to calculate lunar and other environmental
covariates.
License MIT + file LICENSE
Encoding UTF-8
LazyLoad no
URL http://statistics.lazaridis.eu
Version 0.1-04
Date 2014-09-04
NeedsCompilation no
Repository CRAN
Date/Publication 2014-09-08 10:59:14

R topics documented:
lunar-package . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
lunar.4phases . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
lunar.8phases . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
lunar.distance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
lunar.distance.mean . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
lunar.distances . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
lunar.illumination . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
lunar.illumination.mean . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
lunar.metric.mean . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
lunar.phase . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
terrestrial.season . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
terrestrial.seasons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

1
2 lunar.4phases

Index 12

lunar-package The lunar Package

Description
Lunar Phase & Distance, Seasons and Other Environmental Factors.
Provides functions to calculate the phase of the moon, its distance from the earth, the season and
possibly other environmental factors, based on date and location.

Details

Package: lunar
Type: Package
Version: 0.1-04
Date: 2014-09-04
Depends: R (>= 2.10.0)
Encoding: UTF-8
License: MIT
LazyLoad: no
URL: http://statistics.lazaridis.eu

Provides functions to calculate lunar and other environmental covariates.

This package is used by the author to calculate covariates for studies of lunar effect on health and
healthcare.
References forthcoming.

Author(s)
Emmanuel Lazaridis

lunar.4phases Lunar Phase Categories (4)

Description
Return 4 category labels for lunar phases.

Usage
lunar.4phases
lunar.8phases 3

Format
chr [1:4] "New" "Waxing" "Full" "Waning"

Details
These are category names corresponding to phases of the moon. Moon phase category names may
be returned in the output of the lunar.phase function if its name option is set to TRUE.

See Also
lunar.phase

Examples
print(lunar.4phases)

lunar.8phases Lunar Phase Categories (8)

Description
Return 8 category labels for lunar phases.

Usage
lunar.8phases

Format
chr [1:8] "New" "Waxing crescent" "First quarter" "Waxing gibbous" "Full" "Waning gibbous" ...

Details
These are category names corresponding to phases of the moon. Moon phase category names may
be returned in the output of the lunar.phase function if its name option is set to TRUE.

See Also
lunar.phase

Examples
print(lunar.8phases)
4 lunar.distance

lunar.distance Lunar Distance

Description

Returns the distance of the moon from the earth on specified dates.

Usage

lunar.distance(x, shift = 0, ..., name = FALSE, strict = FALSE)

Arguments

x A vector of Date values.

shift The number of hours by which to shift the distance calculation. By default
distance is calculated at 12 noon UT.
name Optional parameter indicating whether the return is a factor variable consisting
of a lunar distance label, or the lunar distance in earth radii. By default lunar
phase is returned in earth radii.
strict Optional parameter indicating whether the return should employ strict defini-
tions for distance labels, that is, with apogee and perigee within 5 definition
breaks the distance categories evenly into 20 The ’average’ category is the same
in both definitions.
... Other optional arguments are ignored.

Details

Distance to the moon is returned in units of earth radii, or as a 5-level factor variable referring to
the moon’s perigee (at about 56 earth radii) and apogee (at about 63.8 earth radii).
Adapted from Stephen R. Schmitt: Lunar Phase Computation: http://mysite.verizon.net/
res148h4j/zenosamples/zs_lunarphasecalc.html. Last accessed: 1 September 2014.

See Also

lunar.distances

Examples
lunar.distance(as.Date("2004-03-24"))
lunar.distance.mean 5

lunar.distance.mean Average Lunar Distance

Description
Returns the average lunar distance around specified dates.

Usage
lunar.distance.mean(x, towards = -6, ..., by = c("date", "hours", "day",
"night"))

Arguments
x A vector of Date values.
towards The directed window size from x in days. By default the window looks back 7
days including x.
by The exposure interval and integration basis. The default is to represent a day’s
distance by the distance at 12 noon UT. The other options integrate midrange
distances over hours.
... Other optional arguments are ignored.

See Also
lunar.distance

Examples
lunar.distance.mean(as.Date("2004-03-24"))

lunar.distances Lunar Distance Categories

Description
Return category labels for lunar distances.

Usage
lunar.distances

Format
chr [1:5] "Apogee" "Far" "Average" "Near" "Perigee"
6 lunar.illumination

Details
These are category names corresponding to distances from the center of the Earth to the center of
its moon. Distance category names are used in the output of the lunar.distance function if its
name option is set to TRUE.
The perigee occurs at roughly 56 Earth radii, and the apogee at about 62.8 Earth radii. These
categories are not determined according to any common standard. They may have different precise
definitions for their bounds in different analyses.

See Also
lunar.distance

Examples
print(lunar.distances)

lunar.illumination Lunar Illumination

Description
Returns the proportion of lunar illumination on specified dates.

Usage
lunar.illumination(x, shift = 0)

Arguments
x A vector of Date values.
shift The number of hours by which to shift the calculation of lunar phase. By default
lunar phase is calculated at 12 noon UT.

Details
Adapted from function moon.illumination in from the R4MFCL project (not an R package),
which was developed by the Secretariat of the Pacific Community (SPC). The R4MFCL project was
led by Simon Hoyle, and also includes code by Shelton Harley, Nick Davies, and Adam Langley
of the SPC, and Pierre Kleiber of the US National Marine Fisheries Service. Pierre Kleiber is the
author of the moon.illumination function.
Code from project R4MFCL is distributed under the MIT License:
http://opensource.org/licenses/mit-license.php
Here is a link to the R4MFCL project:
https://code.google.com/p/r4mfcl/
lunar.illumination.mean 7

See Also

lunar.illumination.mean

Examples
lunar.illumination(as.Date("2004-03-24"))

lunar.illumination.mean
Average Lunar Illumination

Description

Returns the average lunar illumination around specified dates.

Usage

lunar.illumination.mean(x, towards = -6, ..., by = c("date", "hours", "day",

"night"))

Arguments

x A vector of Date values.

towards The directed window size from x in days. By default the window looks back 7
days including x.
by The exposure interval and integration basis. The default is to represent a day’s
illumination by the illumination at 12 noon UT. The other options integrate
midrange illuminations over hours. Options ’day’ and ’night’ are not currently
implemented, but will be used to limit exposure intervals. The use of an unim-
plemented option in a function call will result in a NULL value being returned.
... Other optional arguments are ignored.

See Also

lunar.illumination

Examples
lunar.illumination.mean(as.Date("2004-03-24"))
8 lunar.metric.mean

lunar.metric.mean Average Lunar Metrics

Description
Returns an average measurement around specified dates.

Usage
lunar.metric.mean(x, towards = -6, ..., by = c("date", "hours", "day",
"night"), type = c("illumination", "distance"))

Arguments
x A vector of Date values.
towards The directed window size from x in days. By default the window looks back 7
days including x.
by The exposure interval and integration basis. The default is to represent a day’s
illumination by the illumination at 12 noon UT. The other options integrate
midrange illuminations over hours. Options ’day’ and ’night’ are not currently
implemented, but will be used to limit exposure intervals. The use of an unim-
plemented option in a function call will result in a NULL value being returned.
type Whether illumination or distance metrics are to be returned. The use of an unim-
plemented option in a function call will result in a NULL value being returned.
... Other optional arguments are ignored.

Details
This in an internal support function that integrates a lunar measurement over time using step sizes
of days or hours.

See Also
lunar.illumination
lunar.distance

Examples
## Not run:
lunar.metric.mean(as.Date("2004-03-24"), type="illumination")

## End(Not run)
lunar.phase 9

lunar.phase Lunar Phase

Description
Returns the lunar phase on specified dates.

Usage
lunar.phase(x, shift = 0, ..., name = FALSE)

Arguments
x A vector of Date values.
shift The number of hours by which to shift the calculation of lunar phase. By default
lunar phase is calculated at 12 noon UT.
name Optional parameter indicating whether the return is a factor variable By default
lunar phase is returned in radians. If assigned the value 8, it returns a factor
variable with 8 phase levels. If TRUE or any value other than 0 or 8, it returns a
factor variable with 4 phase labels.
... Other optional arguments are ignored.

Details
Adapted from function moon.illumination in from the R4MFCL project (not an R package),
which was developed by the Secretariat of the Pacific Community (SPC). The R4MFCL project was
led by Simon Hoyle, and also includes code by Shelton Harley, Nick Davies, and Adam Langley
of the SPC, and Pierre Kleiber of the US National Marine Fisheries Service. Pierre Kleiber is the
author of the moon.illumination function.
Code from project R4MFCL is distributed under the MIT License:
http://opensource.org/licenses/mit-license.php
Here is a link to the R4MFCL project:
https://code.google.com/p/r4mfcl/
The R4MFCL code was modified as follows:

• Changed function name from moonphase to lunar.phase.

• Changed input date to be in Date format (as opposed to POSIXct).
• Removed reliance on other R4MFCL functions.
• Changed name of primary input from ptime to x.
• Added optional shift term (in hours) relative to 12h UT.
• Added optional name term to control whether phase names as opposed to radians should be
returned.
• Changed the documentation.
10 terrestrial.season

Where radians are returned:

• 0 refers to the new moon

• π/2 refers to the first quarter
• π refers to the full moon
• 3π/2 refers to the last quarter

Adapted originally from Stephen R. Schmitt: Sky & Telescope, Astronomical Computing, April
1994 and http://mysite.verizon.net/res148h4j/zenosamples/zs_lunarphasecalc.html,
which references Jean Meeus, Astronomical Algorithms. Willmann-Bell, Inc. (1991) 429p.

See Also
lunar.4phases
lunar.8phases

Examples
lunar.phase(as.Date("2013-05-06"))

terrestrial.season Terrestrial Season

Description
Returns the season on specified dates.

Usage
terrestrial.season(x)

Arguments
x A vector of Date values.

Details
The definitions for non-leap years are as follows (dates are inclusive):

Winter: 21 December through 21 March

Spring: 22 March through 21 June
Summer: 22 June through 20 September
Autumn: 21 September through 20 December

In leap years spring comes a day early!

terrestrial.seasons 11

See Also
terrestrial.seasons

Examples
terrestrial.season(as.Date("2004-03-24"))

terrestrial.seasons Terrestrial Season Categories

Description
Return category labels for the seasons on Earth.

Usage
terrestrial.seasons

Format
chr [1:4] "Winter" "Spring" "Summer" "Autumn"

Details
These are category names corresponding to the seasons of the planet Earth.

Examples
print(terrestrial.seasons)
Index

∗Topic covariate lunar.4phases, 2

lunar.metric.mean, 8 lunar.8phases, 3
∗Topic distance lunar.phase, 9
lunar.distance.mean, 5 ∗Topic season
lunar.distances, 5 terrestrial.season, 10
∗Topic earth terrestrial.seasons, 11
terrestrial.season, 10
terrestrial.seasons, 11 Date, 4–10
∗Topic illumination
lunar-package, 2
lunar.illumination, 6
lunar.4phases, 2, 10
lunar.illumination.mean, 7
lunar.8phases, 3, 10
∗Topic light lunar.distance, 4, 5, 6, 8
lunar.illumination, 6 lunar.distance.mean, 5
lunar.illumination.mean, 7 lunar.distances, 4, 5
∗Topic lunar lunar.illumination, 6, 7, 8
lunar.4phases, 2 lunar.illumination.mean, 7, 7
lunar.8phases, 3 lunar.metric.mean, 8
lunar.distance, 4 lunar.phase, 3, 9
lunar.distance.mean, 5
lunar.distances, 5 POSIXct, 9
lunar.illumination, 6
lunar.illumination.mean, 7 terrestrial.season, 10
lunar.metric.mean, 8 terrestrial.seasons, 11, 11
lunar.phase, 9
∗Topic metric
lunar.metric.mean, 8
∗Topic moon
lunar.4phases, 2
lunar.8phases, 3
lunar.distance, 4
lunar.distance.mean, 5
lunar.distances, 5
lunar.illumination, 6
lunar.illumination.mean, 7
lunar.metric.mean, 8
lunar.phase, 9
∗Topic package
lunar-package, 2
∗Topic phase

12