BackForward Satellite Programme: Solar Radiation and Climate Experiment 

Programme details
Programme description
  • Single satellite programme, to monitor solar irradiance.
  • USA programme: sponsored by NASA, developed and managed by the Laboratory for Atmospheric & Space Physics (LASP) of the University of Colorado, Boulder.
  • The platform is actively stabilised over 3 axes.
  • The design life time of the satellite is 6 years.
  • The satellite exploits a low-inclination drifting orbit.
  • It provides continuity of solar irradiance observation from previous satellites (e.g. UARS) to JPSS-FF.
  • See detailed description at http://lasp.colorado.edu/sorce/index.htm.
Data circulation
  • Onboard stored data downlinked to two stations managed by LASP, located at Wallops Island, VA, and at Santiago, Chile.
  • Data processed at the LASP Science Operations Center (SOC), and made available by the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC).
Agencies NASA
Programme lifetime 2003 - 2020
Associated satellites and instruments

Note: red tag => no longer operational , green tag => operational , blue tag => planned