UARS SOLSTICE: Daily Solar Spectral Irradiance at 1 nm Resolution

Daily solar spectral irradiance data from the SOLSTICE instrument on the Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite (UARS), covering the 119 to 420 nm ultraviolet wavelength range at 1 nm resolution. The dataset includes daily average integrated intensities for specific spectral lines and core-wing ratios, normalized to 1 AU and corrected for instrument degradation. It was designed to track solar output variations from minutes to the 22-year solar magnetic field cycle.

Use Cases

• Studying short-term solar variability based on the minute-to-hour measurement capability
• Modeling atmospheric photochemistry using the daily integrated intensities for specific emission lines (e.g., Lyman alpha)
• Analyzing long-term solar cycles (11-year sunspot, 22-year magnetic) based on the dataset's design purpose
• Calibrating other solar irradiance models using the high-precision, 1 nm resolution spectral data

Strengths

• Provides high spectral resolution (1 nm) across the 119-420 nm ultraviolet range
• Designed for high precision and accuracy to track solar variations from minutes to 22-year cycles
• Includes specific derived solar parameters like Carrington coordinates and integrated intensities for key spectral lines

Limitations

• Data format is a binary record-oriented format, which may require specialized tools for access
• Conflicting 'last updated' metadata between sources (2026-04-09 on datagov vs. 1999-12-31 on nasa_earthdata)
• Column names and exact row/size counts are not provided in the source metadata

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite (UARS) SOLSTICE instrument

Collection Method

Satellite-based measurements from a three-channel ultraviolet spectrometer

Freshness

2026-04-09 (from datagov, but conflicts with nasa_earthdata date)