NASA launches new Sun tracking tool

NASA has operated its latest tool on ISS to detect the total amount of light energy emitted by the Light and Sun Sensor (TSIS-1), installed on the ISS, fully operational. with all scientific data collection tools.

"TSIS-1 will help us understand how the effect of the sun impacts the Earth's radiation source, the ozone layer, atmospheric circulation and ecosystems, and the effects of energy transformation. solar energy for the Earth system and climate change. " Dong Wu, TSIS-1 Project Scientist at NASA's Goddard Space Center in the US said.

NASA launches new Sun tracking tool Picture 1

"This sensor data will give us a better understanding of Earth's primary energy supply and provide information to help improve models that simulate the planet's climate," Wu said.

The device was launched from Cape Canaveral Air Station in Florida on the SpaceX Falcon 9 spacecraft on December 15 last year. For more than two months, the team at the University of Colorado, Boulder in the US tested TSIS-1. The sensor studies the total amount of light energy emitted from the sun using the Irradiance Monitor, one of two sensors located on the ISS.

This new sensor gives us a total solar measurement of the Sun for 40 years. The second sensor on the ship, called Spectral Irradiance Monitor, measures how the Sun's energy is distributed in ultraviolet light, seen under infrared light technology.

Measuring the sun's energy distribution is important because each wavelength of light interacts with the Earth's atmosphere differently. For example, ultraviolet radiation measurements of ultraviolet rays are important to understand how ozone layer protects Earth life from ultraviolet rays.