Total (TSI) and Spectral Solar Irradiance (SSI) Upon Earth
Total Solar Irradiance (TSI) – the amount of solar radiation received at the top of the Earth’s atmosphere – was earlier measured by satellite to be roughly 1.366 kilowatts per square meter (kW/m²), but most recently NASA cites TSI as 1,361 W/m² as compared to ~1,366 W/m² from earlier observations, based on results from a series of NASA and ESA satellite TSI monitors continuing today with the ACRIMSAT/ACRIM3, SOHO/VIRGO and SORCE/TIM observations. This “discovery is critical in examining the energy budget of the planet Earth and isolating the climate change due to human activities.” Furthermore the SORCE Spectral Irradiance Monitor (SIM) has found in the same period that spectral solar irradiance (SSI) at UV (ultraviolet) wavelength corresponds in a less clear, and probably more complicated fashion, with earth's climate responses than earlier assumed, fueling broad avenues of new research in “the connection of the Sun and stratosphere, troposphere, biosphere, ocean, and Earth’s climate”.
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