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Procedure
Abstract
Required_Reading
Keywords
Brief_I/O
Detailed_Input
Detailed_Output
Parameters
Exceptions
Files
Particulars
Examples
Restrictions
Literature_References
Author_and_Institution
Version
Index_Entries

Procedure

   void inrypl_c ( ConstSpiceDouble     vertex [3],
                   ConstSpiceDouble     dir    [3],
                   ConstSpicePlane    * plane,
                   SpiceInt           * nxpts,
                   SpiceDouble          xpt    [3] ) 

Abstract

 
   Find the intersection of a ray and a plane. 
 

Required_Reading

 
   PLANES 
 

Keywords

 
   GEOMETRY 
 

Brief_I/O

 
   Variable  I/O  Description 
   --------  ---  -------------------------------------------------- 
   vertex, 
   dir        I   Vertex and direction vector of ray. 
   plane      I   A CSPICE plane. 
   nxpts      O   Number of intersection points of ray and plane. 
   xpt        O   Intersection point, if nxpts = 1. 
 

Detailed_Input

 
   vertex, 
   dir            are a point and direction vector that define a 
                  ray in three-dimensional space. 
 
   plane          is a CSPICE plane. 
 

Detailed_Output

 
   nxpts          is the number of points of intersection of the 
                  input ray and plane.  Values and meanings of 
                  nxpts are: 
 
                     0     No intersection. 
 
                     1     One point of intersection.  Note that 
                           this case may occur when the ray's 
                           vertex is in the plane. 
 
                    -1     An infinite number of points of 
                           intersection; the ray lies in the plane. 
 
 
   xpt            is the point of intersection of the input ray 
                  and plane, when there is exactly one point of 
                  intersection. 
                  
                  If the ray lies in the plane, xpt is set equal to
                  vertex.
                  
                  If there is no intersection, xpt is the zero vector. 
 

Parameters

 
   None. 
 

Exceptions

 
   1)  If the ray's direction vector is the zero vector, the error 
       SPICE(ZEROVECTOR) is signaled.  nxpts and xpt are not 
       modified. 
 
 
   2)  If the ray's vertex is further than dpmax_c() / 3 from the 
       origin, the error SPICE(VECTORTOOBIG) is signaled.  nxpts 
       and xpt are not modified. 
 
 
   3)  If the input plane is s further than dpmax_c() / 3 from the 
       origin, the error SPICE(VECTORTOOBIG) is signaled.  nxpts 
       and xpt are not modified. 
 
 
   4)  The input plane should be created by one of the CSPICE 
       routines 
 
          nvc2pl_c
          nvp2pl_c
          psv2pl_c
 
       Invalid input planes will cause unpredictable results. 
 
 
   5)  In the interest of good numerical behavior, in the case 
       where the ray's vertex is not in the plane, this routine 
       considers that an intersection of the ray and plane occurs 
       only if the distance between the ray's vertex and the 
       intersection point is less than dpmax_c() / 3. 
 
       If vertex is not in the plane and this condition is not 
       met, then nxpts is set to 0 and xpt is set to the zero 
       vector. 
 

Files

 
   None. 
 

Particulars

 
   The intersection of a ray and plane in three-dimensional space 
   can be a the empty set, a single point, or the ray itself. 
 

Examples

 
   1)  Find the camera projection of the center of an extended 
       body.  For simplicity, we assume: 
 
          -- The camera has no distortion;  the image of a point 
             is determined by the intersection of the focal plane 
             and the line determined by the point and the camera's 
             focal point. 
 
          -- The camera's pointing matrix (C-matrix) is available 
             in a C-kernel. 
 
 
             /.
             Load Leapseconds and SCLK kernels to support time 
             conversion. 
             ./
             
             furnsh_c ( "leap.ker" ); 
             furnsh_c ( "sclk.ker" );
 
             /.
             Load an SPK file containing ephemeris data for 
             observer (a spacecraft, whose NAIF integer code 
             is sc) and target at the UTC epoch of observation. 
             ./
             furnsh_c ( "spk.bsp" );
 
             /.
             Load a C-kernel containing camera pointing for 
             the UTC epoch of observation. 
             ./
             furnsh_c ( "ck.bc" ) ;
 
            
             /.
             Find the ephemeris time (barycentric dynamical time) 
             and encoded spacecraft clock times corresponding to 
             the UTC epoch of observation. 
             ./
             utc2et_c ( utc, &et          ); 
             sce2c_c  ( sc,  et,  &sclkdp ); 
 
             /.
             Encode the pointing lookup tolerance. 
             ./
             sctiks_c ( sc, tolch, &toldp ); 
 
            
             /.
             Find the observer-target vector at the observation 
             epoch.  In this example, we'll use a light-time and stellar
             aberration corrected state vector. 
             ./
             
             spkez_c ( target, et, "J2000", "LT+S", sc, state, &lt );
  
             /.
             Look up camera pointing. 
             ./
             ckgp_c ( camera, sclkdp, toldp, "J2000", cmat, &clkout, 
                      &found                                        ); 
 
             if ( !found )
             {
                /.
                No pointing was available.  
                ./
                
                [Handle this case...]
                
                return;
             }
             
             /.
             Negate the spacecraft-to-target body vector and 
             convert it to camera coordinates. 
             ./
             vminus_c ( state, dir       );
             mxv_c    ( cmat,  dir,  dir );
 
            
             /.
             If FL is the camera's focal length, the effective 
             focal point is 
         
                FL * ( 0, 0, 1 ) 
             ./
             
             vscl_c ( FL, zvec, focus ); 
 
            
             /.
             The camera's focal plane contains the origin in 
             camera coordinates, and the z-vector is orthogonal 
             to the plane.  Make a CSPICE plane representing 
             the focal plane. 
             ./
             nvc2pl_c ( zvec, 0., &fplane );
 
             /.
             The image of the target body's center in the focal 
             plane is defined by the intersection with the focal 
             plane of the ray whose vertex is the focal point and 
             whose direction is dir. 
             ./
           
             inrypl_c ( focus, dir, fplane, &nxpts, image );
 
             if ( nxpts == 1 )   
             {
                /.
                The body center does project to the focal plane. 
                Check whether the image is actually in the 
                camera's field of view... 
                ./
                
                [Handle this case...]
             }
             else
             {
                /.
                The body center does not map to the focal plane. 
                ./
                
                [Handle this case...]
             } 
 
  
   2)  Find the Saturn ring plane intercept of a spacecraft-mounted
       instrument's boresight vector.  We want the find the point
       in the ring plane that will be observed by an instrument
       with a give boresight direction at a specified time.  We
       must account for light time and stellar aberration in order
       to find this point.  The intercept point will be expressed
       in Saturn body-fixed coordinates.
 
          -- The ring plane is equatorial. 
 
          -- Light travels in a straight line. 
 
          -- The light time correction for the ring plane intercept 
             can be obtained by performing three light-time 
             correction iterations.  If this assumption does not 
             lead to a sufficiently accurate result, additional 
             iterations can be performed. 
 
          -- A Newtonian approximation of stellar aberration
             suffices.

          -- The boresight vector is given in J2000 coordinates. 
 
          -- The observation epoch is et ephemeris seconds past 
             J2000. 
 
          -- The boresight vector, spacecraft and planetary 
             ephemerides, and ring plane orientation are all known 
             with sufficient accuracy for the application. 

          -- All necessary kernels are loaded by the caller of
             this example routine.


       (A similar technique could be used to obtain low-accuracy 
       predictions of radio occultations.  In that case, the 
       instrument boresight ray's direction vector would be replaced 
       by the vector from the observer to the light-time corrected 
       radio source position.) 
 
       We omit display of the portion of the code that loads SPICE 
       kernels. 

          #include "SpiceUsr.h"
          #include "SpiceZfc.h"


          void ring_xpt ( ConstSpiceChar    * sc,
                          SpiceDouble         et,
                          ConstSpiceDouble    borvec[3],
                          SpiceDouble       * sbfxpt,
                          SpiceBoolean      * found    )
          {

             /.
             Local constants 
             ./  
             #define SATURN          699

             /.
             Local variables
             ./
             SpiceBoolean            fnd;

             SpiceDouble             borv2  [3];
             SpiceDouble             corvec [3];
             SpiceDouble             lt;
             SpiceDouble             satssb [6];
             SpiceDouble             scpos  [3];
             SpiceDouble             scssb  [6];
             SpiceDouble             state  [6];
             SpiceDouble             stcorr [3];
             SpiceDouble             tau;
             SpiceDouble             tipm   [3][3];
             SpiceDouble             xpt    [3];
             SpiceDouble             zvec   [3];

             SpiceInt                i;
             SpiceInt                nxpts;
             SpiceInt                scid;

             SpicePlane              plane;


             /.
             First step:  account for stellar aberration.  Since the
             instrument pointing is given, we need to find the intercept
             point such that, when the stellar aberration correction is
             applied to the vector from the spacecraft to that point,
             the resulting vector is parallel to borvec.  An easy solution
             is to apply the inverse of the normal stellar aberration
             correction to borvec, and then solve the intercept problem
             with this corrected boresight vector.

             Find the position of the observer relative
             to the solar system barycenter at et.
             ./
             bodn2c_c ( sc, &scid, &fnd );

             if ( !fnd )
             {
                setmsg_c ( "ID code for body # was not found." );
                errch_c  ( "#",  sc                            );
                sigerr_c ( "SPICE(NOTRANSLATION"               );
                return;
             }

             spkssb_c ( scid, et, "j2000", scssb );


             /.
             We now wish to find the vector corvec that, when corrected for
             stellar aberration, yields borvec.  A good first approximation is
             obtained by applying the stellar aberration correction for
             transmission to borvec.  Note that the routine called is not
             a wrapper, so there is no letter 'c' at the end of its name.
             The prototype for this routine is declared in SpiceZfc.h.
             ./
             stlabx_ ( (doublereal *) borvec, scssb+3, corvec );

             /.
             The inverse of the stellar aberration correction
             applicable to corvec should be a very good estimate of
             the correction we need to apply to borvec.  Apply
             this correction to borvec to obtain an improved estimate
             of corvec.
             ./
             stelab_c  ( corvec, scssb+3,  borv2  );
             vsub_c    ( borv2,  corvec,   stcorr );
             vsub_c    ( borvec, stcorr,   corvec );

             /.
             Because the ring plane intercept may be quite far from
             Saturn's center, we cannot assume light time from the intercept
             to the observer is well approximated by light time from
             Saturn's center to the observer.  We compute the light time
             explicitly using an iterative approach.

             We can however use the light time from Saturn's center to
             the observer to obtain a first estimate of the actual light
             time.
             ./
             spkezr_c ( "SATURN", et, "J2000", "LT", sc, state, &lt );

             tau = lt;

             /.
             Find the ring plane intercept and calculate the
             light time from it to the spacecraft.
             Perform three iterations.
             ./
             i       =  0;
             *found  =  SPICETRUE;

             while (  ( i < 3 ) && ( *found )  )
             { 
                /.
                Find the position of Saturn relative
                to the solar system barycenter at et-tau.
                ./
                spkssb_c ( SATURN, et-tau, "J2000", satssb );

                /.
                Find the Saturn-to-observer vector defined by these
                two position vectors.
                ./
                vsub_c ( scssb, satssb, scpos );

                /.
                Look up Saturn's pole at et-tau; this is the third
                row of the matrix that transforms J2000 
                coordinates to Saturn body-fixed coordinates.
                ./
                pxform_c ( "J2000", "IAU_SATURN", et-tau, tipm );

                vequ_c ( tipm[2], zvec );

                /.
                Make a CSPICE plane representing the ring plane.
                We're treating Saturn's center as the origin, so
                the plane constant is 0.
                ./
                nvc2pl_c ( zvec, 0.0, &plane );

                /.
                Find the intersection of the ring plane and the
                ray having vertex scpos and direction vector
                corvec.
                ./
                inrypl_c ( scpos, corvec, &plane, &nxpts, xpt );

                /.
                If the number of intersection points is 1,
                find the next light time estimate.
                ./
                if ( nxpts == 1 )
                { 
                   /.
                   Find the light time (zero-order) from the
                   intercept point to the spacecraft.
                   ./
                   tau  =  vdist_c ( scpos, xpt )  /  clight_c();
                   i++;
                }
                else
                {
                   *found = SPICEFALSE;
                }
             } 
             /.
             At this point, if found is SPICETRUE, we iterated
             three times, and xpt is our estimate of the
             position of the ring plane intercept point
             relative to Saturn in the J2000 frame.  This is the
             point observed by an instrument pointed in direction
             borvec at et at mounted on the spacecraft sc.

             If found is SPICEFALSE, the boresight ray does not
             intersect the ring plane.

             As a final step, tranform xpt to Saturn body-fixed
             coordinates.
             ./
             if ( *found )
             {
                mxv_c ( tipm, xpt, sbfxpt );
             }

          }

 

Restrictions

 
   None. 
 

Literature_References

 
   None. 
 

Author_and_Institution

 
   N.J. Bachman   (JPL)
   B.V. Semenov   (JPL)
   W.L. Taber     (JPL) 
 

Version

   -CSPICE Version 1.0.2, 01-FEB-2017 (BVS)

       Typo fix: pnv2pl_c -> nvp2pl_c.

   -CSPICE Version 1.0.1, 12-DEC-2002 (NJB)

       Header fix:  ring plane intercept algorithm was corrected. 
       Now light time is computed accurately, and stellar aberration 
       is accounted for.  Example was turned into a complete
       subroutine.
 
   -CSPICE Version 1.0.0, 26-JUN-1999 (NJB)

Index_Entries

 
   intersection of ray and plane 
 

Link to routine inrypl_c source file inrypl_c.c

Wed Apr  5 17:54:37 2017