Announcement on the SORCE Status page:
Total Irradiance Monitor Status
(updated 24 Feb. 2014)
TIM daily solar measurements have resumed in a new operations mode.
The TIM, along with all other SORCE instruments, ceased collecting solar measurements after a battery cell failure on 30 July 2013. The LASP SORCE spacecraft operations team has implemented a new means of operating the instrument to acquire continued TSI measurements in the present limited-power mode. These measurements are expected to be more intermittent and of lower quality than those during the primary mission phase due to thermal and pointing issues, and this will be reflected in the time-dependent uncertainties given in the released data files.
Despite these issues, these continued SORCE measurements are expected to allow good overlap with TCTE into the near future.
Daily measurements should be available about 7 days after they are acquired, as during the primary phase of the mission, although 6-hourly values may not be available every day as they were before.
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TCTE is the replacement for the TIM TSI monitor on the ailing SORCE platform. It is a stopgap system designed in a hurry to plug the gap:
“The TCTE instrument is a creative, fast and low cost solution that will maintain and extend the solar energy data record until the launch of the next such instrument,” said Harry Cikanek, JPSS director. “The U.S. Air Force, NOAA and NASA, along with our industry and academic partners, went from idea to development in a matter of months, much faster than usualwhich is notable given the challenges of integrating a new payload on an already designed mission.”
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It’s good news that TIM has been partially restored, even in a sub-optimal mode, since this will allow for some intercalibration. How much that’s really worth, given TIM’s eight months offline remains to be seen, but at least some kind of data will be forthcoming, possibly tomorrow.
UPDATE 23:20 1-3-14
I have been given a copy of Frohlich’s PMOD model output which runs to mid December 2013. Download it here (zip format)
Tallbloke's Talkshop 
Good to hear the SORCE/TIM will be operational again. The overlap of successive TSI satellite monitors is the only approach that can sustain the long term database with useful precision.
A plan is in place to recover the ACRIMSAT satellite with the ACRIM3 experiment. ACRIMSAT went into ‘Phoenix status’ during its recent (November 2013 – February 2014) eclipse orbital mode due to battery issues. Now that the spacecraft is in full sun orbits for most of 2014 it is hoped the power level will be restored to a level allowing recovery and full operation on solar panel power.
Comparisons between ACRIM3 and TIM after their operational hiatuses are important to the TSI database because of a systematic drift of TM results relative to the other two satellite experiments (ACRIM3 and SOHO/VIRGO) operating during the TIM mission (2003 – 2013). Understanding and correcting this drift is important for the traceability of the satellite TSI database for solar physics and climate change research.
dikstr: Thanks for that. I’m about to make Frohlich’s dataset up to 17-12-13 available, watch the post for an update.
Post updated
On a sideline, NASA’s New Climate Satellite the Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) satellite will blast off from Tanegashima, Japan, on Thursday afternoon.
From the article “Knowing where, when, and how much it’s snowing and raining around the world is extremely important for understanding extreme events … the cornerstone of a mission to track all precipitation on Earth, with real-time measurements every three hours.”
PMOD data has problems.
The residual here is grass during significant solar activity. This is sensible.
Unfortunately this points to heavy corruption of the data by systematic errors. I don’t see reference to this in the data text or much in the way of an explanation of what it is.
My computer is being stressed by such a large dataset so I will leave it converging, go get on with some building work I have to do (as in bricks and mortar… literally. I’m too old for this stuff).
This looks like the usual intermodulation caused by cyclic view change. In this case earth referenced satellites.
Why this does not (have looked in detail) seem to be centred on 1y is a puzzle. As stitched data each instrument and orbit will be different.
Does it matter? Just be aware of it.
Thanks Tim, that’s intriguing. An artifact of the modeling technique? Who knows. Probably not even Frohlich. The amplitude is a function of what? Average TSI?
Peaks about +-0.2W, not huge. Because it is modulation it varies in amplitude with general signal excursion.
Seen it all before, take a squint at this
Tim: Oh yes. I just did a quick and dirty overlay, and the main two peaks very nearly line up.