When NASA's Glory satellite plummeted into the Pacific Ocean
last year shortly after launch, it took with it a University of
Colorado instrument that was designed to measure the sun's
energy, continuing a record of "solar irradiance" data that
stretches back to 1978. The loss of the Total Irradiance
Monitor, riding on Glory, caused scientists to fear that a gap
would be created in the record. Today, data on solar irradiance
is gathered by a TIM instrument onboard the Solar Radiation and
Climate Experiment satellite, which was designed and built by
CU's Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics. But the
instrument, designed to last five years and launched in 2003,
may not last much longer. The loss of Glory sent CU scientists
scrambling to get another TIM into space before the current
instrument sputters out. This week, CU announced that a new TIM
would hitch a ride into space on a satellite built by Boulder-
based Ball Aerospace and set to launch in 2013. If all goes
well, the new TIM and the old TIM will b