WHI Reference Spectra

Solar Spectral Irradiance Reference Spectra:
Whole Heliosphere Interval (WHI) 2008
Version 2 release: 28-Aug-08

The Whole Heliosphere Interval (WHI) is an international coordinated observing and modeling effort to characterize the 3-dimensional interconnected solar-heliospheric-planetary system. The period is March 20, 2008 to April 16, 2008 (Solar Carrington Rotation 2068).

More information about the Whole Heliosphere Interval and the International Heliophysical Year can be found at the WHI web site.

Three periods within WHI are of particular interest:

March 25 - March 29

Three small active regions on the solar disk, but TSI is lower.
This is considered moderately low solar activity and has sunspot blocking (darkening).
The 10.7 cm radio flux (F10.7) for this period is 83.8
The sunspot number (SSN) for this period is 33.4
The SORCE TIM Total Solar Irradiance (TSI) is 1360.696 W/m^2

March 29 - April 4

Three small active regions on the solar disk, but TSI is higher.
This is considered moderately low solar activity and has faculae brightening.
The 10.7 cm radio flux (F10.7) for this period is 77.1
The sunspot number (SSN) for this period is 16.2
The SORCE TIM Total Solar Irradiance (TSI) is 1360.944 W/m^2

April 10-16

Quiet Sun (QS) campaign (which did turn out quiet).
This is considered to very close to solar cycle minimum condition.
The 10.7 cm radio flux (F10.7) for this period is 68.9
The sunspot number (SSN) for this period is 2.0
The SORCE TIM Total Solar Irradiance (TSI) is 1360.840 W/m^2

Data Overview:

The solar spectral irradiance spectra from 0.1 nm to 2400 nm are provided for the three WHI periods (stated above). Data from TIMED SEE, SORCE, and rocket experiment are combined to cover the full spectral range.
See data file header for more details about the data.
A more complete description of the reference sprectra can be found at WHI_solar_irradiance_results_ver2.pdf

ASCII Text Data Files

Solar Spectral Irradiance Reference Spectra	ref_solar_irradiance_whi-2008_ver2.dat

Software Tools

IDL Data File Reader	read_dat.pro
IDL Code and Supporting Data to Plot and Compare the WHI Reference Solar Spectral Irradiance	plot_whi_ref.zip

References:

WHI Working Group 2A: Quantifying the Quiet Sun / Irradiance for Solar Cycle Minimum
Tom Woods, Phil Chamberlin, Jerry Harder, Rachel Hock, Erik Richard, Marty Snow
LASP / University of Colorado

Woods, T. N., P. C. Chamberlin, J. W. Harder, R. Hock, M. Snow, F. G. Eparvier, J. Fontenla, W. E. McClintock, and E. C. Richard, Solar Irradiance Reference Spectra (SIRS) for the 2008 Whole Heliosphere Interval (WHI), Geophys. Res. Lett., in preparation, 2008.

Chamberlin, P. C., T. N. Woods, D. A. Crotser, F. G Eparvier, R. A. Hock, and D. N. Woodraska, New, Higher Resolution Solar Extreme Ultraviolet (EUV) Irradiance Results for Solar Cycle Minimum Conditions on April 14, 2008, Geophys. Res. Lett., in preparation, 2008.

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Reference Spectra