The program on radiative inputs of the sun to the Earth (rise)
General concerns about changes in the Earth's climate and in the ozone layer have increased the importance of measuring and understanding variations in the sun's radiative outputs. These outputs appear, for instance, at the top of the list of global change forcing agents in the recent FY-90 document on the U.S. Global Change Program. Significant advances have been made over the past decade in radiometry of the total solar irradiance. Photometry of light variations in stars similar to the sun, but much younger, is providing new insights into the sun's variations in luminosity and UV radiation at previous epochs of interest to paleoclimate studies. Measurement of the sun's 11-year output variability in the ultraviolet and extreme ultraviolet still possess a challenge of great importance. All of these topics are addressed by the program on Radiative Inputs of the Sun to Earth (RISE). RISE is a 5-year program of observations, data analysis, and theory, that has been defined at two workshops held in Boulder, Colorado in November 1987, and in Tucson, Arizona in October 1989. These meetings involved about 60 solar and atmospheric physicists, and stellar astronomers. A proceedings of the 1987 workshop was issued in early 1988. A substantial component of the program, consisting of ground-based observations, data analysis, and theory, is directed at the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the program is seeking a FY-92 funding start at the NSF. RISE also makes recommendations on measurements required from NASA and NOAA satellites.