Package Maintenance

Updating IGRF

The International Geomagnetic Reference Field is regularly updated to reflect the most recent changes to the Terrestrial magnetic field. apexpy currently uses IRGF-13 coefficients, which are provided in the apexpy/src/apexpy/igrf13coeff.txt file. To change or update the magnetic field coefficients used by apexpy, you need to update the python code. Assuming your new coefficient file has the same format, the process is simple:

  1. Clone the repository or your fork of the repository (see Contributing)

  2. Update apexpy/src/apexpy/apex.py variable igrf_fn by setting it equal to the new target filename

  3. Install the python package from the command line (see GitHub)

Updating tests and style standards

apexpy is in the process of updating unit and integration tests to reduce code duplication and implementing cleaner style standards. Additionally, some parts of the fortran code adhere to older coding standards and raise warnings when compiled with newer compilers. If you would like to assist in these efforts (help would be appreciated), please discuss your potential contribution with the current maintainer to ensure a minimal duplication of effort.