Reconstruction of total solar irradiance variability as simultaneously apparent from Solar Orbiter and Solar Dynamics Observatory

¹ Max-Planck-Institut für Sonnensystemforschung, Justus-von-Liebig-Weg 3, 37077 Göttingen, Germany
e-mail: yeo@mps.mpg.de; solanki@mps.mpg.de
² Instituto de Astrofísica de Andalucía (IAA-CSIC), Apartado de Correos 3004, 18080 Granada, Spain
³ Univ. Paris-Sud, Institut d’Astrophysique Spatiale, UMR 8617, CNRS, Bâtiment 121, 91405 Orsay Cedex, France
⁴ Instituto Nacional de Técnica Aeroespacial, Carretera de Ajalvir, km 4, 28850 Torrejón de Ardoz, Spain
⁵ Universitat de València, Catedrático José Beltrán 2, 46980 Paterna-Valencia, Spain
⁶ Leibniz-Institut für Sonnenphysik, Schöneckstr. 6, 79104 Freiburg, Germany
⁷ Institut für Datentechnik und Kommunikationsnetze der TU Braunschweig, Hans-Sommer-Str. 66, 38106 Braunschweig, Germany
⁸ University of Barcelona, Department of Electronics, Carrer de Martí i Franquès, 1 – 11, 08028 Barcelona, Spain
⁹ Instituto Universitario “Ignacio da Riva”, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, IDR/UPM, Plaza Cardenal Cisneros 3, 28040 Madrid, Spain
¹⁰ Institut für Astrophysik, Georg-August-Universität Göttingen, Friedrich-Hund-Platz 1, 37077 Göttingen, Germany
¹¹ Fraunhofer-Institut für Kurzzeitdynamik, Ernst-Mach-Institut, EMI, Ernst-Zermelo-Str. 4, 79104 Freiburg, Germany

Received: 9 January 2023
Accepted: 14 August 2023

Abstract

Solar irradiance variability has been monitored almost exclusively from the Earth’s perspective. We present a method to combine the unprecedented observations of the photospheric magnetic field and continuum intensity from outside the Sun-Earth line, which is being recorded by the Polarimetric and Helioseismic Imager on board the Solar Orbiter mission (SO/PHI), with solar observations recorded from the Earth’s perspective to examine the solar irradiance variability from both perspectives simultaneously. Taking SO/PHI magnetograms and continuum intensity images from the cruise phase of the Solar Orbiter mission and concurrent observations from the Helioseismic and Magnetic Imager onboard the Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO/HMI) as input into the SATIRE-S model, we successfully reconstructed the total solar irradiance variability as apparent from both perspectives. In later stages of the SO mission, the orbital plane will tilt in such a way as to bring the spacecraft away from the ecliptic to heliographic latitudes of up to 33°. The current study sets the template for the reconstruction of solar irradiance variability as seen from outside the ecliptic from data that SO/PHI is expected to collect from such positions. Such a reconstruction will be beneficial to factoring inclination into how the brightness variations of the Sun compare to those of other cool stars, whose rotation axes are randomly inclined.