Seeing the Sun in 1,000 different colors with NASA’s TSIS-1

The composition of that light that falls on Earth matters to understanding Earth's energy budget. In December 2017, NASA is launching a new instrument called the Total Solar and Spectral Irradiance Sensor (TSIS-1) designed to study this question. NASA’s TSIS-1 will measure the Sun’s energy in 1,000 different wavelengths, including the visible, ultraviolet, and infrared, known as solar spectral irradiance.

Credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center/Michael Starobin