All characters in "c" up to the first space are checked; thus an abbreviated ID will return the parameters for the first station in the list which matches the abbreviation supplied, and no station in the list will ever contain embedded spaces. "c" must not have leading spaces.
IMPORTANT - BEWARE OF THE LONGITUDE SIGN CONVENTION. The longitude returned by sla_OBS is west-positive in accordance with astronomical usage. However, this sign convention is left-handed and is the opposite of the one used by geographers; elsewhere in PAL the preferable east-positive convention is used. In particular, note that for use in palAop, palAoppa and palOap the sign of the longitude must be reversed.
Users are urged to inform the author of any improvements they would like to see made. For example:
typographical corrections more accurate parameters better station identifiers or names additional stations