Team members for NASA's Solar Radiation and Climate Experiment, or SORCE, satellite that was designed, built and currently is controlled by the University of Colorado at Boulder have received two major awards from the agency.
Gary Rottman, a senior research associate at CU-Boulder's Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics and the SORCE mission's principal investigator, accepted NASA's Group Achievement Award on behalf of the SORCE team Aug. 24. The award is made for outstanding contributions to the success of NASA's overall mission.
In addition, SORCE Program Manager Tom Sparn of LASP received NASA's Public Service Award for outstanding leadership and distinguished contributions to the SORCE mission. The prestigious medal is awarded to non-NASA employees for exceptional contributions to NASA's overall mission.
Launched in January 2003 to study how and why variations in the sun affect Earth's atmosphere and climate, the spacecraft has performed flawlessly, according to NASA officials. The two awards follow a successful 18-month evaluation by NASA, a milestone used to determine mission success.
A NASA evaluation in June 2003 ranked the SORCE mission as excellent in all categories, including quality, timeliness, cost and leadership. Less than 4 percent of all NASA missions receive excellent ratings in all categories.
Scientists and students at CU-Boulder are using data from SORCE and information from other satellites to understand climate change, climate prediction, atmospheric ozone and ultraviolet-B radiation. LASP researcher Tom Woods is the project scientist for the SORCE team.
For more information on the SORCE mission, visit the Web site at: .