Ecology · Geographic reference
GEO_LOCATION
Define where observations occur. Store coordinates, elevation and civil time-zone metadata once, then reuse the same location across solar, ecological, hydrological and climate analyses.
Syntax
GEO_LOCATION(latitude,longitude)
GEO_LOCATION(latitude,longitude,elevationMeters,"America/Los_Angeles")Latitude is positive north and negative south (−90 to 90). Longitude is positive east and negative west (−180 to 180). Elevation is in meters. Use an IANA time-zone identifier rather than a fixed UTC offset to preserve daylight-saving and historical rules.
With two arguments, elevation defaults to 0 meters and time zone defaults to UTC. These are computational defaults, not measured site properties.
Examples
location = GEO_LOCATION(47.6062,-122.3321,50,"America/Los_Angeles")Use the saved location with SOLAR to compute astronomical variables on an existing series' observation dates. A second example: GEO_LOCATION(-33.8688,151.2093,58,"Australia/Sydney").
Scientific applications
Latitude determines seasonal day length and solar angle; longitude determines solar clock time; elevation changes the apparent horizon; the time zone determines how a UTC instant is presented as a local civil date and time.
Potential applications include photoperiod and salmon migration, vegetation phenology, crop development, reservoir evaporation, solar-energy potential, and comparisons between monitoring stations. This command stores geographic metadata; it does not retrieve weather observations or infer site elevation.
Output and interpretation
Returns a GeoLocationOperator object with structured JSON fields latitude, longitude, elevationMeters, and timeZone. The object is intended as an input to other commands, not as a numerical time series. No EXTRACT keys are currently supported.