Daily Total Solar Irradiance

Total solar irradiance describes the radiant energy emitted by the sun over all wavelengths that falls each second on 1 square meter outside the earth's atmosphere--a quantity proportional to the "solar constant" observed earlier in this century. It measures the solar energy flux in Watts/square meter. The data contains six sets of satellite observations: values from NIMBUS-7, from the Solar Maximum Mission (SMM) spacecraft, from the Earth Radiation Budget Satellite (ERBS), from the NOAA-9 and 10 platforms, and from the Upper Atmospheric Research Satellite (UARS). Measurements span the periods: 

     NIMBUS-7 16 Nov 78-13 Dec 93;     SMM    16 Feb 80-01 Jun 89;
     ERBS     25 Oct 84-21 Dec 94;     NOAA-9 23 Jan 85-20 Dec 89;
     NOAA-10  22 Oct 86-01 Apr 87;     UARS    5 Oct 91-30 Sep 94.
Solar Irradiance image

To get to our FTP archive of solar irradiance data, click here. For more information on the various satellies, click on the appropriate hypertext link:

Back to Total Solar Irradiance Data Download page