TSIS: The Total Solar Irradiance Sensor

The Total Solar Irradiance Sensor (TSIS) is a dual-instrument package that will acquire solar irradiance in the next decade on the National Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System (NPOESS). Originally de-manifested during the 2006 NPOESS restructuring, TSIS was restored following a decision by the NPOESS Executive Committee earlier this year because of its critical role in determining the natural forcings of the climate system and the high priority given it by the 2007 Earth Science Decadal Survey. TSIS is comprised of the Total Irradiance Monitor, or TIM, which measures the total solar irradiance (TSI) that is incident at the boundaries of the atmosphere; and the Spectral Irradiance Monitor, or SIM, which measures solar spectral irradiance (SSI) from 200 nm to 2400 nm (96 percent of the TSI). The TSIS TIM and SIM are heritage instruments to those currently flying on the NASA Solar Irradiance and Climate Experiment (SORCE). Both were selected as part of the TSIS because of their unprecedented measurement accuracy and stability, and because both measurements are essential to constraining the energy input to the climate system and interpreting the response of climate to external forcing. This paper will describe those attributes of TSIS which uniquely define its capability to continue the 30-year record of TSI and to extend the new 5-year record of SSI. The role of the solar irradiance data record in the present climate state, as well as in past and future climate change, will also be presented.