How it works
A solar model predicts the horizontal shadow direction from a UTC timestamp and location. Control points map image pixels onto a reference ground plane. Monte Carlo perturbations propagate uncertainty into the angular comparison.
Inputs and units
Supply date and coordinates, calibrated pixel-to-ground control points and the endpoints of a shadow segment. Ground coordinates must use the documented orientation and scale; a photograph alone is insufficient.
What the result contains
The engine returns compatible, contradicted or untestable, with solar angles, measured and expected direction, uncertainty and reasons. Excessive uncertainty or inconsistent controls can make the result untestable.
Connect and inspect the inputs
Initialize an MCP connection, call tools/list and inspect the schema for verify_shadows. The live lab provides a complete example with editable inputs.
Method reference
NOAA solar calculation details ↗
Execution and availability
ScoreCompute exposes this tool through MCP Streamable HTTP. Rust computation runs on a connected worker; the public website and MCP gateway run separately. CUDA is implemented for simulate_pi; the other tools currently run on CPU. Requests are bounded and concurrent work may be refused when capacity is occupied.
Record inputs, assumptions and returned provenance when sharing a result. The public observatory displays software client names and tool activity, without publishing calculation arguments or results.