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David E. Steitz
Headquarters, Washington                       Jan. 22, 2003
(Phone: 202-358-1730)

Lynn Chandler
Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.
(Phone: 301-286-2806)

RELEASE: 03-018

NASA SPACECRAFT SET TO CATCH SOME RAYS

     A new NASA satellite is ready to leave the sandy coast of Florida 
and head to space to catch some rays. The SORCE (Solar Radiation and 
Climate Experiment) mission will study our sun's influence on our 
planet's climate by measuring how the star affects the Earth's ozone 
layer, atmospheric circulation, clouds, and oceans. The research data 
that will help us to better protect and understand our home planet.

SORCE is scheduled to launch from off the coast of the Kennedy Space 
Center, Fla., on January 25 aboard a Pegasus XL launch vehicle at 
approximately 3:14 p.m. EST. The Pegasus XL rocket is dropped from the 
wing of an L-1011 aircraft over the Atlantic Ocean. After falling a 
few seconds, the spacecraft's engines will power on and lift it into 
orbit. The satellite will orbit at an altitude of 397.8 miles (640
kilometers).

"This mission will help to distinguish between natural and 
human-induced influences in climate change. Incoming light energy from 
the sun is ultimately what powers our climate system. Past NASA 
missions showed the amount of solar radiation is not constant, but 
rather varies over time. SORCE will help us understand these 
variations, and the role of solar variability in climate change," said 
Dr. Ghassem Asrar, NASA's Associate Administrator for Earth Science.

SORCE is a small free-flying satellite carrying four scientific 
instruments to measure the solar radiation at the top of the Earth's 
atmosphere and how the sun influences Earth's atmosphere and climate. 
The four instruments on SORCE are the Total Irradiance Monitor, the 
Spectral Irradiance Monitor, Solar Stellar Irradiance Comparison 
Experiment, and the Extreme Ultraviolet Photometer System. The first 
three will measure solar irradiance and the solar spectrum to help
scientists understand the sun's role in climate change. The Photometer 
System will measure high-energy radiation from the sun.

"We are very excited as we near our launch date." said Bill Ochs, 
SORCE Project Manager at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) in 
Greenbelt, Md. "This mission has been a tremendous team effort between 
the University of Colorado, NASA, and Orbital Sciences Corporation," 
he said.

This mission is a joint partnership between NASA and the University of 
Colorado's Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics (LASP) in 
Boulder. SORCE is a principal investigator- led mission with GSFC 
providing management, scientific oversight and engineering support.

Scientists and engineers at LASP designed, built, calibrated, and 
tested the four science instruments on SORCE. LASP subcontracted with 
Orbital Sciences Corporation for the spacecraft and observatory 
integration and testing. The Mission Operations Center and the Science 
Operations Center are both operated at LASP. LASP will operate the 
spacecraft over its five-year mission life and is responsible for the
acquisition, management, processing, and distribution of the science 
data.

SORCE data will support studies in long-term climate change, natural 
variability, enhanced climate prediction, and atmospheric ozone and 
UV-B radiation. The SORCE measurements are critical to studies of the 
variability of the sun; its effect on our Earth system; and its 
influence on humankind.

SORCE is a part of NASA's Earth Science Enterprise, a program 
dedicated to understanding the Earth as an integrated system and 
applying Earth system science to improve prediction of climate, 
weather, and natural hazards using the vantage point of space.

For more information about SORCE see:

http://lasp.colorado.edu/sorce

http://www.gsfc.nasa.gov/topstory/2003/0106sorce.html

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