Monthly Newsletter

Abstracts / Hotel Reservations Due - June 10
Meeting Registration Due - June 20
The 2002 SORCE Science Working Group Meeting is scheduled for July 17-19, in Steamboat Springs, Colorado at the Steamboat Sheraton Resort and Conference Center. This EOS SOlar Radiation and Climate Experiment (SORCE) meeting will focus on the variable Sun and its influence on the terrestrial environment. We encourage the interaction of solar scientists and scientists studying the Earth's atmosphere and climate. Our goal is to define our present understanding of solar/terrestrial variations and possible relationships. The SORCE satellite will launch in November 2002 - the count down begins now in SNS!

TECHNICAL SESSIONS
Session 1. Short-term (minutes to 2 years) solar variations and terrestrial variations.
Solar Phenomena: eruptive events (flares), oscillations, sunspots & active regions, solar rotation, tachocline
Oscillations.
Climate Phenomena: eruptive events (volcanoes), diurnal variations, 27-day solar-driven events, seasonal variations.

Session 2. Medium-term (1-30 years) solar variations and terrestrial variations.
Solar Phenomena: sunspot cycle, magnetic (dynamo) cycle.
Climate Phenomena: QBO, ocean circulation, 11-year
solar-driven events, anthropogenic changes.

Session 3. Long-term (> 30 years) solar variations and terrestrial variations.
Solar Phenomena: cycle-to-cycle variations, Maunder minimum, stellar evolution.
Climate Phenomena: droughts, ice ages, historical
records (tree rings, ice cores, etc.).

There will be a combination of invited and contributed presentations in each session. Depending on the number of abstracts submitted, there are options for oral or poster presentations for the contributed presentations. Abstracts for oral or poster presentations for the three sessions should be submitted by June 10.
Meeting Abstract Forms, Registration Forms, and detailed program information are available at: http://lasp.colorado.edu/sorce/July02ScienceMeeting.html.

Countdown to Launch - November 30 (as of May 28, 2002):

SORCE Mission Status
Things are moving quickly! Following a 2-day Instrument Module Pre-Ship Review with NASA in late February, SORCE sponsored an Open House and Press Conference to celebrate the completion of years of hard work done at LASP developing and building the four SORCE instruments. It was a time to reflect on the tremendous accomplishments that have been achieved on this project so far. For the Press Conference, local and state publications made a special effort to acknowledge this mission with detailed articles and photos. The press is committed to staying with us through the launch and beyond when we begin gathering and analyzing data.

George Lawrence at the SORCE Open House. The SORCE instruments were temporarily integrated on the MU in the clean room before going to Orbital Sciences Corporation.

A week later three of the four instruments (minus SIM) started their journey to Orbital Sciences Corporation in Dulles, Virginia. Packed in sealed containers free from dust and other contaminants, the instruments were loaded into a 15-foot rental truck for the 1600-mile journey across America. With 5 drivers from LASP (Mike Anfinson, Paul Bay, Rick Kohnert, Tom Sparn, and Pete Withnell) taking shifts, the truck and chase vehicle left early Sunday morning, March 3rd. Only stopping for fuel, food, and 2 overnights (Kansas