On Nov. 1, come learn how LASP is contributing to space measurements of Earth’s 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.
Who: Open to the public
What: “LASP Contributions to Monitoring Earth’s Energy Balance from Space”
When: Wednesday, Nov. 1, 7:30 p.m.
Where: LASP Space Technology Building, room 299
About the lecture
CU Boulder's LASP (Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics) has a long history of measuring the Sun’s radiant energy from high-altitude balloons, sounding rockets and satellite platforms in order to understand its influences on Earth’s environment. But in the very near term, LASP will measure the Sun’s energy output from a new frontier—the International Space Station—with the launch of the Total and Spectral Solar Irradiance Sensor (TSIS) at the end of November 2017.
LASP’s expertise in precision measurements of the Sun has also enabled technological advances for measuring reflected solar radiation, the portion of the Sun’s energy that escapes back to space after interactions with Earth’s 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’s 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 and validation of climate-change predictions.
About the speaker
Coddington is a research scientist at LASP. Her PhD 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 and space. Coddington applies advanced statistical inverse theory approaches to quantify the data characteristics and to drive new instrument design and retrieval methodologies.
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