Credit: University of Colorado at Boulder
Since July 2022, a miniature satellite about the size of a shoebox has been orbiting Earth and monitoring how much solar energy reaches the atmosphere. Now, scientists are finalizing their analysis of the first five months of measurements it gathered while in orbit.
The sun is by far the largest source of energy to Earth, dwarfing the energy generated by Earth’s core, and it plays a major role in global climate. Precise and accurate measurement of how much solar energy is absorbed by Earth—Total Solar Irradiance (TSI)—is crucial to our understanding of Earth’s climate system.
The CubeSat, called the Compact Total Irradiance Monitor-Flight…