Active Cavity Radiometer Irradiance Monitor Satellite

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ACRIMSAT, for Active Cavity Radiometer Irradiance Monitor Satellite was a satellite that was part of NASA's Earth Observing System program. Acrimsat was launched on 20 December 1999 from Vandenberg Air Force Base about a Taurus rocket along with KOMPSAT and placed into a sun-synchronous orbit where it continued long-term studies of the solar irradiance.

ACRIMSAT carried the ACRIM III instrument which made precise measurements of the solar irradiance from 2000 to 2005, continuing measurements that had been made by instruments on Solar Max (1980-1989) and the Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite (1991-). ACRIMSAT made measurements during the 2004 transit of Venus, and measured the 0.1% reduction in the solar intensity caused by the shadow of the closer planet.^[1]

Richard C. Wilson of Columbia University was the principal investigator for the mission. The single-purpose satellite was constructed by Orbital Sciences Corporation for only $30 million. ACRIMSAT is spin-stabilized, weighs only 13 kg, and has international designator 1999-070B.

[edit] References

1. ^ G. Schneider, J. M. Pasachoff, and Richard C. Willson (2006). "The Effect of the Transit of Venus on ACRIM's Total Solar Irradiance Measurements: Implications for Transit Studies of Extrasolar Planets" (^{[dead link]} – ^{Scholar search}). The Astrophysical Journal 641: 565–571. doi:10.1086/500427. 

[edit] External links

• Project homepage
• Jet Propulsion Laboratory hompage
• Press report at end of primary mission
• Fact sheet on the mission