def METHOD_NAME(ers1passes, ers2passes, dbname):
    """
    create a sqlite database from ERS pass tables
    downloaded from http://www.deos.tudelft.nl/ers/phases/starttimes.html.
    There you can also find additional information on the file structure and background.
    The fields `phase`, `cycle`, `pass`, `starttime` and `endtime` are read from the table.
    The latter two are converted to format YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS.SSS.
    The fields `cycle` and `pass` are converted to integer.
    All five fields plus the name of the sensor (`ERS1` or `ERS2`) are then stored to the database.
    Parameters
    ----------
    ers1passes: str
        the name of the ERS-1 pass table
    ers2passes: str
        the name of the ERS-2 pass table
    dbname: str
        the name of the database to write the results to
    Returns
    -------
    """
    columns = {'satellite': 'TEXT',
               'phase': 'TEXT',
               'cycleNumber': 'INTEGER',
               'passNumber': 'INTEGER',
               'starttime': 'TEXT',
               'endtime': 'TEXT'}
    con = sqlite_setup(driver=dbname)
    create_string = '''CREATE TABLE if not exists data ({})'''.format(
        ', '.join([' '.join(x) for x in columns.items()]))
    cursor = con.cursor()
    cursor.execute(create_string)
    def time_convert(timestring):
        dt = datetime(1985, 1, 1) + timedelta(seconds=float(timestring))
        return dt.strftime('%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S.%f')
    insert_string = '''INSERT INTO data({0}) VALUES({1})''' \
        .format(', '.join(columns.keys()),
                ', '.join(['?'] * len(columns.keys())))
    for satellite, filename in [('ERS1', ers1passes), ('ERS2', ers2passes)]:
        with open(filename, 'r') as table:
            for line in table:
                phase, cycle, passNumber, starttime, endtime = line.split()[0:5]
                insertion = [satellite, phase,
                             int(cycle), int(passNumber),
                             time_convert(starttime), time_convert(endtime)]
                if satellite == 'ERS1':
                    log.info(tuple(insertion))
                cursor.execute(insert_string, tuple(insertion))
    con.commit()
    con.close()