The Solar Radiation and Climate Experiment (SORCE) was a NASA mission that operated from 2003 to 2020 to provide key climate-monitoring measurements of total solar irradiance (TSI) and solar spectral irradiance (SSI). Three important accomplishments of the SORCE mission are i) the continuation of the 42-year-long TSI climate data record, ii) the continuation of the ultraviolet SSI record, and iii) the initiation of the near-ultraviolet, visible, and near-infrared SSI records. All of the SORCE instruments functioned well over the 17-year mission, which far exceeded its five-year prime mission goal. The SORCE spacecraft, having mostly redundant subsystems, was also robust over the mission. The end of the SORCE mission was a planned passivation of the spacecraft following a successful two-year overlap with the NASA Total and Spectral Solar Irradiance Sensor (TSIS) mission, which continues the TSI and SSI climate records. There were a couple of instrument anomalies and a few spacecraft anomalies during SORCE’s long mission, but operational changes and updates to flight software enabled SORCE to remain productive to the end of its mission. The most challenging of the anomalies was the degradation of the battery capacity that began to impact operations in 2009 and was the cause for the largest SORCE data gap (August 2013 – February 2014). An overview of the SORCE mission is provided with a couple of science highlights and a discussion of flight anomalies that impacted the solar observations. Companion articles about the SORCE instruments and their final science data-processing algorithms provide additional details about the instrument measurements over the duration of the mission.

太阳辐射和气候实验(SORCE) 是 NASA 的一项任务，从 2003 年到 2020 年运行，以提供对总太阳辐照度 (TSI) 和太阳光谱辐照度 (SSI) 的关键气候监测测量。SORCE 任务的三项重要成就是 i) 延续长达 42 年的 TSI 气候数据记录，ii) 延续紫外线 SSI 记录，以及 iii) 启动近紫外线、可见光和近红外 SSI 记录。所有 SORCE 仪器在 17 年的任务中运行良好，远远超过了其五年主要任务目标。SORCE 航天器具有大部分冗余子系统，在任务中也很强大。SORCE 任务的结束是在与 NASA总和光谱太阳辐照度传感器成功重叠两年后计划对航天器进行钝化(TSIS) 任务，继续 TSI 和 SSI 气候记录。在 SORCE 的长期任务期间，出现了一些仪器异常和一些航天器异常，但操作变化和飞行软件的更新使 SORCE 能够在任务结束前保持高效。最具挑战性的异常情况是电池容量的下降，它在 2009 年开始影响运营，并导致最大的 SORCE 数据差距（2013 年 8 月至 2014 年 2 月）。SORCE 任务的概述包括几个科学亮点和对影响太阳观测的飞行异常的讨论。有关 SORCE 仪器及其最终科学数据处理算法的配套文章提供了有关任务期间仪器测量的更多详细信息。