School to build $34M satellite instrument

BOULDER, Colo., May 14 (UPI) -- The University of Colorado says a $34 million solar instrument package it proposed has been restored to a 2013 U.S. satellite mission.

University officials said the package will be built by the school's Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics for the first flight of the National Polar Orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System, or NPOESS. The instrument package had been canceled during the 2006 restructuring of the NPOESS program.

Known as the Total Solar Irradiance Sensor, or TSIS, the instrument package also is expected to fly on two subsequent NPOESS missions slated for 2015 and 2020.

TSIS consists of two instruments, including the Total Irradiance Monitor that measures the total light coming from the sun at all wavelengths, "a fundamental quantity for determining the energy balance of the planet," said principal investigator Peter Pilewskie.

The second instrument, the Spectral Irradiance Monitor, will measure how the light from the sun is distributed by wavelength -- data needed to understand how it interacts with Earth's surface and atmosphere.

Pilewskie said data from both instruments will help scientists differentiate between natural and human-caused climate change.