Moon API Parameters

Below is an overview of all parameters related to the moon:

Moon Age | Moon Azimuth Angle | Moon Elevation Angle | Moon Light | Moon Phase | Moon Visible Area | Moonrise and Moonset

Every parameter is now explained in more detail:

Moon Age

Age of the moon given in days since new moon.

moon_age:d

Example:

• https://api.meteomatics.com/2025-02-21T00:00:00ZP6D:P1D/moon_age:d/50,10/csv

  validdate;moon_age:d
  2017-08-18T00:00:00Z;26
  2017-08-19T00:00:00Z;27
  2017-08-20T00:00:00Z;28
  2017-08-21T00:00:00Z;0
  2017-08-22T00:00:00Z;1
  2017-08-23T00:00:00Z;2
  2017-08-24T00:00:00Z;3

Moon Azimuth Angle

The moon azimuth angle defines the moon's relative direction along the local horizon.

moon_azimuth:d

Example:

• The moon azimuth angle for London on June 10th, 2024:

  validdate;moon_azimuth:d
  2024-06-10T00:30:00Z;323.9
  2024-06-10T01:00:00Z;330.1
  2024-06-10T01:30:00Z;336.5
  2024-06-10T02:00:00Z;343.0
  2024-06-10T02:30:00Z;349.7
  2024-06-10T03:00:00Z;356.5
  2024-06-10T03:30:00Z;3.4
  2024-06-10T04:00:00Z;10.2
  2024-06-10T04:30:00Z;16.9
  2024-06-10T05:00:00Z;23.6
  2024-06-10T05:30:00Z;30.0
  2024-06-10T06:00:00Z;36.3
  …
  2024-06-10T18:30:00Z;242.3
  2024-06-10T19:00:00Z;249.7
  2024-06-10T19:30:00Z;256.4
  2024-06-10T20:00:00Z;262.6
  2024-06-10T20:30:00Z;268.4
  2024-06-10T21:00:00Z;274.0
  2024-06-10T21:30:00Z;279.4
  2024-06-10T22:00:00Z;284.7
  2024-06-10T22:30:00Z;290.1
  2024-06-10T23:00:00Z;295.4
  2024-06-10T23:30:00Z;300.9
  2024-06-11T00:00:00Z;306.5
  

  Current situation:
  https://api.meteomatics.com/2025-02-20T00:30:00Z--2025-02-21T00:00:00Z:PT30M/moon_azimuth:d/51.508021,-0.129410/html

Moon Elevation Angle

The moon elevation angle (angle between the moon and the horizon) gives the position of the moon above the horizon.

moon_elevation:d

Example:

• The moon elevation angle for Oslo on summer solstice:

  

  Current situation:
  https://api.meteomatics.com/2025-02-20T00:00:00Z--2025-02-21T00:00:00Z:PT1H/moon_elevation:d/59.914941,10.743319/html

Moon Light

Gives the moon light in percent with respect to the moon phase and the cloud cover.

moon_light:p

Examples:

• The amount of moon light for the next 3 days for a location:
  https://api.meteomatics.com/2025-02-21T12:00:00ZP3D:PT1H/moon_light:p/50,10/html

  

• The visible moon light for Europe on October 29th, 2020:
  https://api.meteomatics.com/2025-02-21T00:00:00Z/moon_light:p/europe:0.05,0.05/html_map
  
  

  

Moon Phase

The phase of the moon, which repeats itself every 29.5 days. The range of the index is between -1 and 1, where negative indices correspond to waning moon phases and positive ones to waxing phases:

Index	⟶	−0.5	⟶	0	⟶	0.5	⟶	1
Phase	Waning gibbous	Last Quarter	Waning crescent	New Moon	Waxing crescent	First Quarter	Waxing gibbous	Full Moon

moon_phase:idx

Examples:

• The moon phase over a period of 60 days

  https://api.meteomatics.com/2025-02-21T00:00:00ZP60D:P1D/moon_phase:idx/50,10/html

  

• The corresponding json-file with a period of 15 days

  https://api.meteomatics.com/2025-02-21T00:00:00ZP15D:P1D/moon_phase:idx/50,10/json

  {"version":"3.0","user":"api-test","dateGenerated":"2018-02-14T12:12:06Z","status":"OK","data":
  [{"parameter":"moon_phase:idx","coordinates":[{"lat":50,"lon":10,"dates":
  [{"date":"2017-07-01T00:00:00Z","value":0.5},{"date":"2017-07-02T00:00:00Z","value":0.563},
  {"date":"2017-07-03T00:00:00Z","value":0.625},{"date":"2017-07-04T00:00:00Z","value":0.688},
  {"date":"2017-07-05T00:00:00Z","value":0.75},{"date":"2017-07-06T00:00:00Z","value":0.813},
  {"date":"2017-07-07T00:00:00Z","value":0.875},{"date":"2017-07-08T00:00:00Z","value":0.938},
  {"date":"2017-07-09T00:00:00Z","value":1},{"date":"2017-07-10T00:00:00Z","value":-0.938},
  {"date":"2017-07-11T00:00:00Z","value":-0.875},{"date":"2017-07-12T00:00:00Z","value":-0.813},
  {"date":"2017-07-13T00:00:00Z","value":-0.75},{"date":"2017-07-14T00:00:00Z","value":-0.688},
  {"date":"2017-07-15T00:00:00Z","value":-0.625},{"date":"2017-07-16T00:00:00Z","value":-0.531}]}]}]}

Visible Area

The percentage of the moon's visible area which is illuminated.

moon_vis_area:p

Examples:

• The percentage of lit area on the moon over a period of 60 days

  https://api.meteomatics.com/2025-02-21T00:00:00ZP60D:P1D/moon_vis_area:p/50,10/html

  

• The visible area over a period of 15 days as a csv output

  https://api.meteomatics.com/2025-02-21T00:00:00ZP15D:P1D/moon_vis_area:p/50,10/csv

  validdate;moon_vis_area:p
  2017-08-01T00:00:00Z;59.4
  2017-08-02T00:00:00Z;65.6
  2017-08-03T00:00:00Z;71.9
  2017-08-04T00:00:00Z;78.1
  2017-08-05T00:00:00Z;84.4
  2017-08-06T00:00:00Z;90.6
  2017-08-07T00:00:00Z;96.9
  2017-08-08T00:00:00Z;96.9
  2017-08-09T00:00:00Z;90.6
  2017-08-10T00:00:00Z;84.4
  2017-08-11T00:00:00Z;78.1
  2017-08-12T00:00:00Z;68.8
  2017-08-13T00:00:00Z;62.5
  2017-08-14T00:00:00Z;56.3
  2017-08-15T00:00:00Z;50
  2017-08-16T00:00:00Z;40.6

Moonrise and Moonset

This parameter returns the SQL date and time of moonrise at a given location in UTC.

moonrise:<unit>

moonset:<unit>

Moonrise and moonset times are available in the following units: sql, dn, ux

sql will return a time stamp according to the ISO-8601¹ format (YYYY-MM-DDThh:mm:ssZ).

dn refers to the date number. The date number represents the whole and fractional number of days from 1-Jan-0000 to a specific date and is equivalent to the serial date number used in Matlab.

ux refers to the Unix timestamp. It gives the total number of elapsed seconds since 00:00:00 UTC on the 1^st of January 1970.

Note: Some special cases may occur, which give rise to the following outputs (no date/time outputs):

-666: The moon does not rise or does not set on the specified date

-777: The moon is not visible

-888: The moon is always visible

Example:

• Moonrise and moonset over a period of one week

  https://api.meteomatics.com/2025-02-21T00:00:00+02:00P7D:P1D/moonrise:sql,moonset:sql/47.423336,9.377225/csv

  validdate;moonrise:sql;moonset:sql
  2017-04-03T22:00:00Z;2017-04-03T09:49:23Z;2017-04-03T00:22:38Z
  2017-04-04T22:00:00Z;2017-04-04T10:49:52Z;2017-04-04T01:17:45Z
  2017-04-05T22:00:00Z;2017-04-05T11:55:07Z;2017-04-05T02:05:29Z
  2017-04-06T22:00:00Z;2017-04-06T13:01:22Z;2017-04-06T02:45:21Z
  2017-04-07T22:00:00Z;2017-04-07T14:08:38Z;2017-04-07T03:20:11Z
  2017-04-08T22:00:00Z;2017-04-08T15:13:52Z;2017-04-08T03:49:52Z
  2017-04-09T22:00:00Z;2017-04-09T16:19:19Z;2017-04-09T04:18:13Z
  2017-04-10T22:00:00Z;2017-04-10T17:22:38Z;2017-04-10T04:44:32Z