TLE
Generated by scripts/gen-format-pages.py from docs/data/format-metadata/, FILE_FORMATS.csv and docs/formats-master.csv. Do not edit by hand: change the source, then run the script.
TLE Satellite Preview.
At a glance
| Purpose | A two-line element set (TLE or 3LE): satellite orbital elements in fixed-column text, one or many satellites. |
| Extensions | .tle |
| Poka parser | poka-tle |
| Viewer | poka-tree-viewer |
| Depth tier | Parser with a shared viewer (see Depth tiers) |
| Breadth tier | B2 Broad (see Breadth tiers) |
How much Poka reads
B2 Broad. The common content of the current and the common older versions is decoded. Some named features or versions are not, and are listed.
Confidence: medium (the reviewer read the code). Basis: Reviewed 2026-10-26: read parsers/poka-tle/src/main.rs (506 lines) and plugin.json. No unit tests or tests/samples.rs; the corpus has SGP4-VER.TLE, read by no test. Covers .tle and .3le. The tree decodes every satellite's lines: name, catalogue number, classification, international designator and epoch (as a date), then inclination, RAAN, eccentricity, argument of perigee, mean anomaly, mean motion, revolution number and drag terms, and derives period, semi-major axis, apogee, perigee and orbit class. Judgement: B2: every element is decoded and the main quantities derived; the gaps are checks and propagation.
What Poka does not read
- Line checksums are not verified (judgement from the code)
- Positions are not propagated (no SGP4) and no ground track is drawn
- Only the first 3,000 nodes are shown; files over 4 MiB are cut without a flag
Libraries
Libraries Poka uses or has assessed for this format, with the status, licence and language the registry records.
- sgp4 (neuromorphicsystems) (candidate; MIT; Rust; https://github.com/neuromorphicsystems/sgp4) — SGP4 propagation with TLE and OMM parsing; TLE parsing and propagation work without alloc (no_std).
- python-sgp4 (candidate; MIT; Python; https://github.com/brandon-rhodes/python-sgp4) — Satrec.twoline2rv() loads TLEs, with a pure-Python fallback; MIT per the repo LICENSE file.
Sources
- parsers/poka-tle/src/main.rs
- parsers/poka-tle/plugin.json