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Solar Constant
Construction of a Composite Total Solar Irradiance (TSI) Time Series from
1978 to present
The description of the procedures used to construct the composite from the original data shown in Figure 1 (upper panel)
can be found in Fröhlich and Lean [1998]; Fröhlich [2000]. Radiometrically it is based on the ACRIM-I and II records; before the
start of the ACRIM-I measurements in 1980, during the spin mode of SMM, and during the gap between ACRIM-I and II,
corrected HF data are inserted by shifting the level to fit the corresponding ACRIM data over an overlapping period of
250 days on each side into the ACRIM sets. In early 1996 the VIRGO data take over, again shifted to agree with ACRIMII.
Finally the composite record is adjusted via ACRIM-II to SARR (Space Absolute Radiometer Reference) which was
introduced by Crommelynck et al. [1995] and allows the comparison of different space experiment (done in spring 1993). The
data fromERBE and ACRIM-III, as well as an empirical model are used for comparisons and for internal consistency checks.
It is important to note that the model is an independent source of information for comparisons and as long as it is
not used over solar cycle time scales it provides a reliable time series for time scales of less than a year. So it will
be used in all comparisons as it is available as a daily record which is important for the interpolation between
ERBE data with their 14-day sampling.
The most important issues for the construction of the composite are:
* Correction for the early measurements of HF on NIMBUS 7 to account for its early increase, degradation and
non-exposure dependent increase (as described in Fröhlich and Lean [1998] and updated by Fröhlich [2006]).
* Assessment of the early increase and degradation of ACRIM-I also updated by Fröhlich [2006].
* Tracking of ACRIM II to ACRIM I by comparison with ERBE, HF and the model (revised from Fröhlich [2000]
and described in Fröhlich [2003]).
* Detailed assessment of the influence of the many operational interruptions in the ACRIM-II record (described in
IFröhlich [2004]).
The related problems are discussed in detail in corresponding references (mainly in the recent paper for the ISSI WS2005)
and summarized in the following.
Figure 1. Upper panel: Compared are daily averaged values of the Sun’s total irradiance TSI from radiometers on different space
platforms since November 1978: HF on Nimbus7, ACRIM I onSMM, ERBE on ERBS, ACRIM II on UARS, VIRGO on
SOHO, and ACRIM III on ACRIM-Sat. The data are plotted as published by the corresponding instrument teams. Note
that only the results from the three ACRIMs and VIRGO radiometers have inflight corrections for degradation. Lower Panels:
The PMOD, ACRIM and IRMB composite TSI as daily values plotted in different colors to indicate where the data are comming from. PDF Figure
The analysis of the PMO6V radiometer of the VIRGO experiment on SOHO allowed not only to develop a model for the
changes, but also to differentiate between effects of quite different origin. From our experience with the radiometer
series for SOVIM, an experiment to be flown on the International Space Station, and by re-examination of the retrieved
radiometers from EURECA we learned that the early increase is due to a change in absorption of the primary aperture and
its influence on the sensitivity by extra IR radiation emitted from the aperture into the cavity. So, it became clear,
that this influence may be important for all radiometers used in space missions, which have their primary aperture
directly in front of the cavity. And, indeed it could be detected in ACRIM-I with similar amplitudes as observed for
the PMO6V radiometers of VIRGO. In a next step degradation ACRIM-I has to be modelled again. This is quite straight
forward as the model developed for the PMO6V radiometers taking the dose into account works very well. It is only complicated
by the fact that during the spin-mode operation of SMM (after failure of the pointing system of SMM in late 1980 until repair in
1984) the exposure was drastically reduced, which, however, can be taken into account accordingly.
For the HF radiometer the situation is more complicated as there is no back-up instrument which can be used for
in-flight exposure dependent corrections. So we need a reference for the early observations, which is build from the
proxy model calibrated with ACRIM-I and used to extrapolate ACRIM-I back to November 1978, the start of NIMBUS-7.
Another complication is the fact that the time series has many slips which are mainly due to changes in the orientation
of the spacecraft and due to switch-off, which have not been taken into account in the original evaluation. In contrast to the
earlier analysis we determine the sensitivity changes of HF over its full period and the trend needs no longer to be determined
during the ACRIM gap by comparison with ERBS and the proxy model as in Fröhlich [2000] . The data set used as
reference is a combination of the proxy model, ACRIM-I and ERBS data, and mainly dominated by ACRIM-I. The final
result of the corrected HF data set is not fundamentally different from what was determined earlier with a much simpler and
more dependent method, but the corrections are now internally consistent and done over the full HF measurement period at
once. It is interesting to note that there is also an increase of sensitivity which is not exposure dependent. similar to the effect on
DIARAD/VIRGO. IThe reason for such long-term changes, however, is still unknown. The magnitude of the correction
demonstrates how important they are (up to 1 Wm-2).
With these corrections we are now ready to refer ACRIM-II to ACRIM-I which then will be the radiometric basis for
composite. This is done by a weighted average of the ratios of ACRIM-I to the corrected HF and ERBS data and the
corresponding average ratios of ACRIM-II. With the new treatment of the HF correction, this radiometer is now more or less
independent. of ERBS, a further improvement over the earlier analysis. Having done this scaling the rest is straight-
forward and consists of adjusting the HF and VIRGO measurements to the ACRIMs leaving them at their respective
levels. The result is then scaled to SARR for practical reasons with the results from ACRIM-II during the comparison of . The
comparison to the original data is shown in Figure 2 where the major corrections are obvious: early HF, ACRIM-I during 1980,
HF during the ACRIM gap.
The result is shown in the bottom part of Figure 1together with the ACRIM and IRMB composites. The comparison of the
PMOD composite with the original data is shown in Figure 2 and the result of a more detailed comparison of the three
composites with ERBE is presented in Figure 3. After the detection of the early increase in the ACRIM-I data set and due
to the fact that the ERBS radiometers are copies of ACRIM-II (manufactured by TRW for NASA Langley) and assuming that
both have the same type and geometry of apertures they should behave very similarly . As the total exposure time is less
than 3 days only a correction for the earliest increase has to be applied.
Figure 2. Comparison of the PMOD composite with original data sets. Smooth full lines indicate that the radiometer is the
basis for the composite and if coincident with zero that no corrections other than an overall shift has been applied. If an
instrument is not used the color of the line is dimmed .The HF record needed the most important corrections mainly for the
long-term changes. The ACRIM I record in 1980 is also changed to take the early increase and a revised version of the
degradation algorithms into account. Results from ERBE, DIARAD/VIRGO (evaluated with the IRMB algorithm) and
TIM/SORCE. are plotted as dotted lines.
PDF Figure
Figure 3. Comparison of the PMOD, ACRIM and IRMB composites with ERBE. The result illustrates the jump of the ACRIM
composite over the ACRIM gap which corresponds to the corrections to the HF radiometer applied for the construction
of the PMOD composite. The observed upward trend as seen in Figure 2 has been corrected with the early increase coefficients
of ACRIM I and the dose seen by ERBE as descibed in the paper for the ISSI WS2005. This graph illustrates also quite
impressively how different the result of DIARAD/VIRGO is when it is evaluated with the IRMB algorithm. The fit with an
exponential function which takes also a change over the soho-vacation gap into account, confirms independently the non-
exposure dependent changes, the VIRGO team has determined and applied. Fortunately, DIARAD and possibly HF are the only
radiometers for which such an effect has been identified. Without comparison with some other independent instruments there is
no way to assess such changes. This was also the reason for VIRGO to have two different types of radiometer. PDF Figure
An estimate of the uncertainty of the long-term behaviour of the composite TSI can be deduced from the uncertainty of the slope
relative to ERBE. For the PMOD composite the slope over the whole period amount s to 1.1 +/- 2.1 ppm/a. Although this standard
deviation is partly determined by the sampling of ERBE we may estimate the uncertainty of a possible trend to be <3 ppm/a for
periods longer than 10 to 15 years. This implies a possible change of 50 to 80 ppm over the 23 years of the observations. If we
add the uncertainties related to the tracing of ACRIM-II to I and of the HF correction (60 ppm) we get a total uncertainty of 92 ppm.
The observed change of the PMOD composite as difference between two successive minima amounts to -10 ppm which is not
significantly different from zero at the 3-sigma level.
The comparison of the three composites with ERBE shows that the PMOD composite is the most consistent. So, if one
believes the ERBE record, and with the Sperman's rank correlation coefficient s of the PMOD, ACRIM and IRMB composites of 0.751,
0.678 and 0.695, respectively, it becomes clear which one should be chosen as a reliable estimate of the total solar irradiance for the
last three solar cycles. The composite is available as daily values here.
Figure 4. The PMOD composite TSI as daily values plotted in different colors for the different originating experiments. The
difference between the minima values is also indicated, together with amplitudes of the three cycles. PDF Figure
The great success of the proxy model (as e.g. described in Fröhlich and Lean, 2004) in explaining both the short and long-term
behaviour of the Sun during the last three cycles, it is now possible to expand the composite back to the minimum in 1976. The data
are available from here and the extended composite is shown in Fig.5.
Figure 5. The extended PMOD composite TSI as daily values plotted in different colors for the different originating experiments. The
differences between the minima values is also indicated, together with amplitudes of the three cycles. PDF Figure
References
Crommelynck, D., A. Fichot, R. B. Lee III, and J. Romero, First realisation of the space absolute radiometric reference
(SARR) during the ATLAS 2 flight period, Adv. Space Res., 16, 17-23, 1995.
Dewitte, S, D. Crommelynck, S. Mekaoui, A. Joukoff, Merasurement and Uncertainty of the long-term Total Solar Irradiance Trend,
Sol.Phys., 224, pp 209-216, 2004
Fröhlich, C., and J. Lean, The Sun’s total irradiance: Cycles and trends in the past two decades and associated climate
change uncertainties, Geophys. Res. Let., 25, 4377-4380, 1998.
Fröhlich, C., Observations of irradiance variability, Space Science Reviews, 94, 15-24, 2000.
Fröhlich, C., Long-term behaviour of space radiometers, Metrologia, 40, 60-65, 2003.
Fröhlich, C., Solar Irradiance Variability, in Solar Variability and its Effect on climate, Chapter 2: Solar Energy Flux Variations,
American Geophysical Union, Geophysical Monograph Series No. 141, 97-110, 2004.
Fröhlich, C. and J. Lean: 2004, `Solar Radiative Output and its Variability: Evidence and Mechanisms'. Astron. and Astrophys. Rev.,
12, pp. 273--320, 2004, doi: 10.1007/s00159-004-0024-1
Fröhlich, C., Solar Irradiance Variability Since 1978: Revision of the {PMOD} Composite During Solar Cycle 21, Space Science
Rev., in press, preprint
Willson, R. C., Total solar irradiance trend during solar cycles 21 and 22, Science, 277, 1963-1965, 1997.
Willson, R. C., and A.V. Mordinov, Secular total solar irradiance trend during solar cycles 21 and 22, Geophys. Res. Let.,
30, 1199-1202, 2003.
Reponsible for this page is Claus Fröhlich ; last update of text: 24 May 2006
