BackForwardInstrument:  SOVAP 

Instrument details
Acronym SOVAP
Full name Solar Constant Variability, Picard
Purpose Sun observation, Space weather - Monitoring from a terrestrial orbit
Short description Differential absolute solar radiometer (2 cavities) to provide high absolute accuracy (± 0.1%) coupled with a bolometric sensor for relative measurements at high temporal resolution (10 s).
Background New development
Scanning Technique Sun pointing
Resolution N/A
Coverage / Cycle Near-continuous from the dawn-dusk orbit, at 3-min intervals
Mass 11.5 kg Power 10.5 W Data Rate 40 bps

 

Providing Agency CNES
Instrument Maturity Flown on an R&D satellite
Utilization Period: 2010 to 2014
Last update: 2021-09-29
Detailed characteristics
Satellites this instrument is flying on

Note: a red tag indicates satellites no longer operational, a green tag indicates operational satellites, a blue tag indicates future satellites

Instrument classification
  • Earth observation instrument
  • Passive optical radiometer or spectrometer
  • Solar irradiance monitor
WIGOS Subcomponents
  • Subcomponent 1
  • Absolutely calibrated broadband radiometers, and TSI and SSI radiometers
  • TSI and SSI radiometers (for solar irradiance)
Mission objectives
Primary mission objectives
  • Downward short-wave irradiance at TOA
Evaluation of Measurements

The following list indicates which measurements can typically be retrieved from this category of instrument. To see a full Gap Analysis by Variable, click on the respective variable.

Note: table can be sorted by clicking on the column headers
Note: * Primary mission objective.
VariableRelevance for measuring this variableOperational limitationsExplanation
Downward short-wave irradiance at TOA*3 - highNo specific limitation.TSI over the range from UV to TIR