Published: Oct. 30, 2017
Image of Earth from space

On Nov. 1, come learn how LASP is contributing to space measurements of Earth鈥檚 energy balance with the TSIS and CLARREO Pathfinder missions. The event will feature a public lecture from research scientist Odele Coddington. Plus, along the way, see fun videos of the TSIS platform during testing as it is prepared for launch.

If you go

Who: Open to the public
What: 鈥淟ASP Contributions to Monitoring Earth鈥檚 Energy Balance from Space鈥
When: Wednesday, Nov. 1, 7:30 p.m.
Where: LASP Space Technology听Building, room 299

麻豆影院 the lecture

CU 麻豆影院's 听has a long history of measuring the Sun鈥檚 radiant energy from high-altitude balloons, sounding rockets听and听satellite platforms in order to understand its influences on Earth鈥檚 environment. But in the very near term, LASP will measure the Sun鈥檚 energy output from a new frontier鈥攖he International Space Station鈥攚ith the launch of the Total and Spectral Solar Irradiance Sensor (TSIS) at the end of November 2017.

LASP鈥檚 expertise in precision measurements of the Sun has also enabled technological advances for measuring reflected solar radiation, the portion of the Sun鈥檚 energy that escapes back to space after interactions with Earth鈥檚 atmosphere and surface elements.

By using the Sun as a direct calibration source, the reflected solar (RS) spectrometer currently being built by LASP engineers for NASA鈥檚 CLARREO Pathfinder mission will reduce the uncertainties in measured solar reflectance by approximately an order of magnitude compared to current sensors. The high-accuracy RS measurements will be used to improve the quality of other NASA sensors and for the attribution, testing听and validation of climate-change predictions.

麻豆影院 the speaker

Coddington is a research scientist at LASP. Her PhD听research focused on airborne shortwave spectral irradiance measurements with applications to atmosphere (clouds, aerosols) and surface remote sensing. Her interests include the measurements and modeling of solar irradiance and the shortwave radiation at Earth observed from surface, air听and space. Coddington applies advanced statistical inverse theory approaches to quantify the data characteristics and to drive new instrument design and retrieval methodologies.听

Want more stories like this in your inbox?