1 /* Contributed in the public domain.
2 * Licensed to CS GROUP (CS) under one or more
3 * contributor license agreements. See the NOTICE file distributed with
4 * this work for additional information regarding copyright ownership.
5 * CS licenses this file to You under the Apache License, Version 2.0
6 * (the "License"); you may not use this file except in compliance with
7 * the License. You may obtain a copy of the License at
8 *
9 * http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
10 *
11 * Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
12 * distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
13 * WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
14 * See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
15 * limitations under the License.
16 */
17 package org.orekit.models.earth;
18
19 import org.orekit.bodies.BodyShape;
20
21 /**
22 * All models of Earth's shape have some common properties that are not shared with
23 * arbitrary {@link BodyShape}s. In particular, an ellipsoidal (or spherical) model is
24 * used to compute latitude and longitude.
25 *
26 * @author Evan Ward
27 * @see #getEllipsoid()
28 */
29 public interface EarthShape extends BodyShape {
30
31 /**
32 * Get the underlying ellipsoid model that defines latitude and longitude. If the
33 * height component of a {@link org.orekit.bodies.GeodeticPoint} is not needed,
34 * then using the ellipsoid will provide the quickest transformation.
35 *
36 * @return the reference ellipsoid. May be {@code this}, but never {@code null}.
37 */
38 ReferenceEllipsoid getEllipsoid();
39
40 }