The Solar Radiation and Climate Experiment Sorce

The Solar Radiation and Climate Experiment (SORCE) is a small, free-flying satellite carrying four scientific instruments to measure the solar radiation incident at the top of the Eartha??s atmosphere. SORCE was successfully launched from NASAa??s Kennedy Space Center on 25 January 2003. As one element of NASAa??s Earth Science Enterprise, the SORCE mission is a joint effort between NASA and the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics (LASP). The primary objectives of SORCE are to make daily measurements of Total Solar Irradiance, TSI, and spectral irradiance over almost the entire spectral range from soft X-rays, through the visible, and into the infrared. The SORCE instruments a?? the Total Irradiance Monitor (TIM), the Spectral Irradiance Monitor (SIM), two Solar Stellar Irradiance Comparison Experiments (SOLSTICE), and the XUV Photometer System (XPS) a?? are currently measuring the Suna??s total and spectral irradiance with unprecedented accuracy and precision capable of establishing solar variability. In addition to securing a reliable long-term database with which to characterize solar radiative forcing of climate and global change, the SORCE program seeks to foster new understanding of the origins of the solar variations and the physical pathways by which the Eartha??s atmosphere, oceans, and land respond on multiple time scales. This collection of papers describes the SORCE mission, goals, spacecraft, instrument development and calibration, planning software, ground operations, data processing, early science results, and science implications on how the Sun influences Eartha??s environment.

The SORCE Principal Investigator, Dr. Gary Rottman from LASP at the University of Colorado, has been at the forefront of solar irradiance variability research for decades. Very early in Dr. Rottman's career he recognized the need for reliable and continuous long-term measurements of the Sun's output. Through many sounding rocket experiments and satellite instruments, Dr. Rottman has led research efforts in obtaining, analyzing, interpreting, and disseminating solar irradiance measurements. Tom Woods - Dr. Tom Woods is the SORCE Project Scientist and is also the Associate Director at the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics (LASP) at the University of Colorado. Tom joined LASP in 1987 to work on the UARS SOLSTICE program under the direction of Gary Rottman. Greg Kopp - Dr. Greg Kopp is a Research Scientist at the University of Colorado's Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics. He has a background in solar physics and aerospace instrumentation. He obtained a BS in Physics from the California Institute of Technology and a PhD in Physics from Stanford University. Greg is the instrument scientist for the TIM (Total Irradiance Monitor) instrument on board SORCE, and he is developing the next TIM for the NASA Glory Mission.