Total and Spectral Solar Irradiance (TSSI) Measurements for the Next 35 Years

This Presentation will explore the Total and Spectral Solar Irradiance (TSSI) implementation concepts from present and to the next 35 years of monitoring. TSIS-1 is currently being implemented on the International Space Station, with deployment in late 2017 to take over continuity of the TSSI from the highly successful SORCE mission. TSIS-2 will be a follow-on to TSIS-1 and lead into a possible TSSI Operational Monitoring Constellation (TOMC), a proposed implementation concept to reduce the cost and risk of the follow-on TSSI data monitoring. TOMC will provide the collection of the TSSI Climate Data Record (CDR) with high reliability and significantly lower annual cost than past concepts while achieving CDR level performance. TOMC is based on the success of the LASP SORCE mission, the current and ongoing TSIS-1 development and new developments in the launch vehicle and low-cost spacecraft arena.

The keys to this concept are: 1) a very capable and low cost spacecraft bus design; 2) the roll out of several small low-cost launch vehicles (for example: the “Super Strypi (SPARK)” Missile); and, 3) a 25-year plan to provide continuous TSSI CDRs with a constellation of overlapping spacecraft efficiently controlled by a single Operations Center (OC) and existing data processing system.

By managing all of the interfaces within one organization, with efficient yet streamlined NASA oversight following the SORCE model, and using existing low cost space-mission operations center and data production system, TOMC can accomplish 22 years of continuous TSSI CDR production for less than ten million USD per year over the 25 year implementation of the program. This constellation results in over 70% cost reduction in implementation cost while maintaining the reliability and performance of the system.