SORCE Celebrates 1 Year in Orbit!

January 25, 2004 marked the first year of a very successful SORCE mission. The spacecraft and instruments are performing exceptionally well, and the science data collected are exceeding all expectations. All SORCE science data are available to the entire science community through the Goddard DAAC, which can be accessed through the SORCE website: data access page.

Scientist working in many different disciplines and on a variety of missions/projects are actively using SORCE’s data to compare and learn. It is a very exciting time for research, and the SORCE data and SORCE science meetings will have a major impact. The SORCE data products continue to be refined and improved, and most have reached a quality level suitable for research. The SORCE team is still refining the data corrections that will address on orbit changes in instrument responsivity, so these present data products are not yet appropriate for detection of long-term solar variability.

In just one short year there have been several outstanding SORCE discoveries. The flare events in late October provided SORCE with a perfect opportunity to demonstrate its capabilities –the TIM instrument produced the first definitive measurements of a flare seen in the total solar irradiance, and there is the discovery of the Cr XX emission in the SOLSTICE flare spectrum. Tom Woods, a SORCE project scientists, has submitted a paper addressing the flare results to the Geophysical Research Letters. The Astrophysical Journal Letters is reviewing a paper submitted by Juan Fontenla regarding how the infrared emissions measured by SIM differ from model predictions, and this new observational constraint will lead to refinement and improvement of the models.

To acknowledge SORCE’s first year, everyone was invited to celebrated with fun, games, food, and birthday cake. To read more about the celebration check out the January 2004 SORCE Newsletter.