TSIS TIM: Total Solar Irradiance 6-Hour Means from the International Space Station

December 2017 onward, this dataset provides 6-hour mean total solar irradiance (TSI) measurements from the Total Irradiance Monitor (TIM) instrument on the TSIS-1 mission mounted on the International Space Station. The data is produced by GES DISC and is reported at a mean solar distance of 1 AU with estimated long-term repeatability uncertainties of less than 0.014 W/m²/yr. Data is appended daily in a single tabular ASCII text file.

Use Cases

• Modeling solar energy input to Earth's climate system based on total irradiance measurements.
• Analyzing long-term solar variability trends based on the instrument's reported repeatability and uncertainty.
• Validating and calibrating other solar irradiance models based on the reported accuracy and wavelength range.
• Studying the relationship between solar activity and atmospheric processes based on time-series irradiance data.

Strengths

• Long-term repeatability with estimated uncertainties less than 0.014 W/m²/yr (10 ppm/yr) as stated in the description.
• Data is appended daily, suggesting regular updates.
• Irradiances are reported at a standardized mean solar distance of 1 AU, facilitating comparison.

Limitations

• Current accuracy is reported as 0.48 W/m² (350 ppm), which is expected to decrease with future calibrations.
• Row count and total file size are unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• Column-level documentation is absent from the provided metadata; field semantics must be inferred after download.

Provenance

Source

GES DISC (NASA)

Collection Method

Measurements from the Total Irradiance Monitor (TIM) instrument on the TSIS-1 mission.

Time Range

From December 2017 onward.

Freshness

New data are appended to the file on a daily basis.

Geography

Global (solar measurements from space).