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- The purpose of the Active Cavity Radiometer Irradiance Monitor III (ACRIM III) instrument is to study total solar Irradiance from the Sun. The ACRIM III package is flying on a spacecraft called ACRIMSAT. The spacecraft was launched on December 20, 1999 as a secondary payload on a Taurus launch vehicle. ACRIM III, third in a series of long-term solar-monitoring tools built for NASA by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, will continue to extend the database first created by ACRIM I, which was launched in 1980 on the Solar Maximum Mission (SMM) spacecraft. ACRIM II followed on the Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite (UARS) in 1991. ACRIMSAT data will be correlated with possible global warming data, ice cap shrinkage data, and ozone layer depletion data. It is theorized that as much as 25 percent of the Earth's total global warming may be solar in origin due to small increases in the Sun's total energy output since the last century. By measuring incoming solar radiation and adding measurements of ocean and atmosphere currents and temperatures, as well as surface temperatures, climatologists will be able to improve their predictions of climate and global warming over the next century. Energy forecasting, carbon management, public health. Launch: Launched: December 20, 1999 Launch Vehicle: Taurus Launch Site: Western Test Range, Vandenberg Air Force Base Orbit: Altitude: 680 km Inclination: 98.13 degrees Sun-Synchronous Vital Statistics: Weight: 13 kg Power: 49 watts Design Life: 5 years Instruments: Active Cavity Radiometer (ACR) instrument (4 Shuttle) SMM/ACRIM I SMM/ACRIM II Website: http://science.hq.nasa.gov/missions/satellite_55.htm
[Summary provided by NASA.]
Group: Platform_Details Entry_ID: ACRIMSAT Group: Platform_Identification Platform_Category: Solar/Space Observation Satellites Short_Name: ACRIMSAT Long_Name: Active Cavity Radiometer Irradiance Monitor Satellite End_Group Group: Synonymous_Platform_Names Short_Name: 1999-070B Short_Name: 26033 End_Group Group: Platform_Associated_Instruments Short_Name: ACRIM III End_Group Group: Orbit Orbit_Altitude: 685 km Orbit_Inclination: 98.13 degrees Equator_Crossing: 10:50 AM descending node Period: 99 m Perigee: 683 km Apogee: 727 km Orbit_Type: LEO > Low Earth Orbit > Polar Sun-Synchronous End_Group Online_Resource: http://acrim.jpl.nasa.gov/ Online_Resource: http://www.acrim.com/ Online_Resource: http://eosweb.larc.nasa.gov/PRODOCS/acrimIII/table_acrimIII.html Sample_Image: http://acrim.jpl.nasa.gov/images/common/acrimsatanim2.gif Group: Platform_Logistics Launch_Date: 1999-12-20 Launch_Site: Vandenberg Air Force Base, USA Design_Life: 5 years Primary_Sponsor: NASA End_Group End_Group
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