Meetings/News

The NASA Solar Radiation and Climate Experiment (SORCE) science mission ended on February 25, 2020 after completing more than 17 years of excellent observations of the...

As planned, the Total Solar Irradiance Calibration Transfer Experiment (TCTE) science mission ended on June 30, 2019. TCTE was built and operated by CU/LASP for NOAA...

Great news for the SORCE mission! After a Key Decision Point (KDP) Meeting regarding SORCE’s Phase F, NASA Headquarters has decided to extend SORCE operations into...

The SORCE team hosted an Ice Cream Social at LASP to celebrate that SORCE has been in orbit for 6000 days at the end of June...

We are thrilled to be celebrating the 15-year anniversary of the Solar Radiation and Climate Experiment. On January 25, 2003, the spacecraft was delivered into low...

After years in the making (almost 2 decades!), the Total and Spectral Solar Irradiance Sensor (TSIS-1) launched on Dec. 15, 2017 onboard a SpaceX Falcon 9...

Although SORCE was quiet through the August 21st solar eclipse, the SORCE scientists totally enjoyed the Sun’s magnificent show! Without a coronagraph for solar eclipse observations,...

SORCE scientists and collaborators participated in a 2nd SIST Workshop for the NASA program called: Solar Irradiance Science Team (SIST). The primary purpose of the SIST...

SIM Version 23 (V23) was introduced on May 2, 2017. Below are the release notes for V23, Level 3 data product. SORCE SIM V23 employs the...

by: Odele Coddington, Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics, University of Colorado – Boulder. In November 2015, a new Solar Irradiance Climate Data Record (CDR) consisting...

It was a busy week for SORCE scientists at the 2016 Fall AGU Meeting in San Francisco, CA, Dec. 12-16. They contributed in several different sessions...

We are releasing a new data product for SOLSTICE. Instead of binning the daily spectrum to 1-nm intervals, users can now download the full-resolution spectrum for...

Each summer, the SORCE mission funds student research projects as part of the University of Colorado’s Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) program. For ten weeks, the...

The latest version of SOLSTICE data has just been released. It includes several important corrections that improve the data quality.

The last few months have been challenging for the SORCE Mission Operations team as they work to bring SORCE science measurements back to life. Their hard...

Great news! SORCE successfully transitioned to a new “hybrid” operating mode on Monday, Feb. 24th. The hybrid mode allows SORCE to take solar measurements again after...

Annapolis, Maryland, Sept. 18-19, 2012 By: Jerald Harder, LASP, University of Colorado, Jerry.Harder@lasp.colorado.edu Martin Snow, LASP, University of Colorado, Marty.Snow@lasp.colorado.edu Tom Woods, LASP, University of Colorado,...

With the loss of another battery cell, SORCE is now operating in a new configuration. While we are working ultimately towards recovering back to normal operations...

Download Article as a .PDF This image shows the SORCE spacecraft with the solar arrays deployed during integration and testing at Orbital Sciences Corporation. Image credit:...

By Marty Snow, LASP, Univ. of Colorado Each summer, the SORCE program at LASP employs three student research interns as part of the Boulder Solar Alliance’s...

By Marty Snow, LASP, Univ. of Colorado Who teaches the teachers? SORCE does! As part of the Extended Mission’s Education and Public Outreach program, Erin Wood...

By Greg Kopp, LASP, Univ. of Colorado he Total Irradiance Monitor (TIM) on SORCE has a precision of approximately 0.0004%, or 4 parts per million (ppm),...

There was a small gathering of scientists and calibration specialists that met Feb. 28 – March 1 at NIST in Gaithersburg, Maryland, to address the interesting...

By Marty Snow, LASP, Univ. of Colorado SORCE scientists took part in two Working Groups at the International Space Science Institute (ISSI) in Bern, Switzerland in...

The University of Colorado at Boulder took an unusual step today by returning $3 million in cost savings to NASA for an award-winning satellite mission designed,...

I’m sure you have heard of the old cliché wondering if a tree falls in the forest and nobody is present to observe it, does it...

Observations reveal that magnetic activity on the Sun varies dramatically over time, with a near periodic 11-year cycle. Large dark sunspots are frequently observed on the...

The SORCE Science Data System (SDS) performs all science data production activities. It consists of the hardware and software components necessary to generate, manage, and distribute...

Since the launch of SORCE in early 2003, the Total Irradiance Monitor (TIM) has been measuring total solar irradiance (TSI) values approximately 0.34% lower than the...

On September 19, 2006, the SORCE instrument team convened a workshop to discuss and intercompare the past, present, and to some extent, the future instruments that...

On Wednesday, August 9, 2006, the LASP SORCE science team is hosting a one-day workshop to address “SORCE Solar Spectral Irradiance Needs for the Modeling Community”....

The SORCE team has been very busy over the past year preparing 18 individual papers to be published in a special issue of Solar Physics. This “topical...

During the first half of September 2005, a period of increased solar activity occurred that rivaled the number and magnitude of flares produced during the “Halloween”...

SOLSTICE planned and executed a series of observations of comet Tempel 1 on July 3. Unfortunately the impact was not bright enough to be detected by SOLSTICE. The...

The SORCE team has been very busy over the past year preparing 18 individual papers to be published in a special issue of Solar Physics. This...

Everyone is invited to attend the 3rd Annual SORCE Science Meeting – Paleo Connections Between the Sun, Climate, and Culture – as we vastly extend the time domain...

Solar activity, the Earth’s climate and human culture, all undergo change. An increasing number of paleoclimate records, for example in ice-cores, ocean sediments, lake levels, and...

Two years of successful operation on-orbit! SORCE was launched on January 25, 2003 from Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The spacecraft, instruments, and ground systems are...

In 2003, the October solar storms obtained significant attention from the scientific community as well as from the press and public. These storms upset the Earth’s...

Oct 27-29 – Meredith, NH: Approximately 75 scientists gathered for the 2004 SORCE Science Meeting held in a picturesque little town off beautiful Lake Winnipesaukee, New...

Gary Rottman, SORCE Principal Investigator, accepted the “NASA Group Achievement Award” on behalf of the SORCE Mission Team on Tuesday, August 24th. This award is presented...

Eighteen months of successful operation on-orbit is a crucial milestone for SORCE, because this is the criterion point NASA considers to determine the mission a success....

On June 8, for the first time since 1882, the planet Venus came between the Earth and the Sun. The circumstances for these special transit events...

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...

During the last week of October and the first week of November the Sun surprised scientists with exceptionally high levels of activity. It is indeed fortuitous...

As the mission heads into its ninth month, scientists are thrilled with SORCE’s progress. The instruments continue to make excellent solar and stellar observations. Since SORCE...

Science is the word of the day. Operating in normal mode, SORCE instruments are making excellent daily solar observations, with nightly stellar observations for calibration. As...

The days and months have flown by since SORCE was launched January 25th. We certainly have something to celebrate and be proud of! This is a...

Heading towards six months since launch, SORCE continues to make excellent daily solar observations, with nightly stellar observations for calibration. Scientists and engineers continue to verify...

As we pass four months since launch, SORCE continues to make excellent daily solar observations, with nightly stellar observations for calibration. The spacecraft is performing exceptionally...

It has been three months since SORCE was launched! SORCE continues to make excellent daily solar and stellar observations, and the solar data are received two...

Things are happening at the speed of light! Normal operations commenced on March 6 when the instruments on-board SORCE began making daily solar observations. Data are...

All spacecraft subsystems are nominal. Over the week of February 20 – 26, thirty-three ground contacts were performed. Starting Monday, March 3, these contacts were reduced...

The SORCE spacecraft and its instruments are exceeding our initial expectations, as there have been no significant glitches. 25 of the 27 mechanisms on the spacecraft...

The SORCE MU is on and commissioning is complete for all of the instruments.

The SORCE MU is on and commissioning is complete for the TIM, SIM A and B, XPS, and SOLSTICE A instruments. SOLSTICE B commissioning began this...

All hardware elements are in perfect shape with no hardware anomalies of any kind being reported so far. The spacecraft star trackers and fine sun sensor...

The SORCE satellite is successfully launched! The launch went exactly as planned, without a hitch. Even the weather cooperated after days of very cold weather in...

All times are MST (unless otherwise indicated) 6:00 pm: After being successfully delivered into orbit by the Pegasus launch vehicle, the SORCE spacecraft continues to operate flawlessly....

It’s one day to launch and counting! Launch day operations at the Hot Pad begin at 7:00 am EST, Saturday, January 25th. The payload and launch...

Operations to transport the integrated SORCE rocket and payload to the “hot pad” began at 4am Wednesday, January 22nd (see photos). The “hot pad”, or “skid...

Getting closer! The SORCE launch remains set for this Saturday, January 25, from Kennedy Space Center (KSC), with the launch scheduled for 3:10 p.m. Eastern Time,...

With the completion of the installation of the SORCE fairing (rocket nose-cone) on Wednesday, January 16th (see photos), the SORCE payload and launch vehicle became the...

Activities on the SORCE project have picked up since the holiday break. The current launch date for the SORCE spacecraft from KSC/CCAFS (Kennedy Space Center/Cape Canaveral...

The SORCE spacecraft has been in a hold mode since Thanksgiving, awaiting arrival of the Pegasus launch vehicle from assembly facilities in California. The delivery of...

As reported in the previous update, the SORCE launch, which was scheduled for December 13th, had to be moved forward to accommodate repairs to key launch...

The SORCE Pre-ship Review (PSR) was held at Orbital Sciences Corporation (OSC) in Dulles, Virginia on October 21, 2002. This was the last formal review of...

The repair and retest of the XPS, SOLSTICE A and SOLSTICE B instruments occurred during the week of September 16. The instruments have since all been...

The SORCE Spacecraft is currently on schedule to complete Thermal Vac test activities in ~ 9 days. During this recent round of testing, some questionable behavior...

Post-vibration alignment checks have been completed with no movement noted. The spacecraft bus and instrument module are currently undergoing post vibration inspection and preparation for thermal...

Vibration and shock testing of the spacecraft has been successfully completed. Current activities center around post-vibration alignment verification, solar array deployment checks, and preparation for spacecraft...

The plan had been to start acoustics testing on Thursday (6/27). Because of delays in completing the necessary final spacecraft assembly and solar array test activities,...