Solar Hard X-ray Observations with NuSTAR

Details Solar Hard X-ray Observations with NuSTAR Solar Hard X-ray Observations with NuSTAR

May 2011

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2011spd....42.1501s&link_type=abstract

American Astronomical Society, SPD meeting #42, #15.01; Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, Vol. 43, 2011

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High-sensitivity imaging of coronal hard X-rays allows detection of freshly accelerated nonthermal electrons at the acceleration site. A few such observations have been made with Yohkoh and RHESSI, but a leap in sensitivity could help pin down the time, place, and manner of reconnection.
In 2012, the Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array (NuSTAR), a NASA Small Explorer for high energy astrophysics that uses grazing-incidence optics to focus X-rays up to 80 keV, will be launched. NuSTAR is capable of solar pointing, and three weeks will be dedicated to solar observing during the baseline two-year mission. NuSTAR will be 200 times more sensitive than RHESSI in the hard X-ray band. This will allow the following new observations, among others:
1) Extrapolation of the micro/nanoflare distribution by two orders of magnitude down in flux
2) Search for hard X-rays from network nanoflares (soft X-ray bright points) and evaluation of their role in coronal heating
3) Discovery of hard X-ray bremsstrahlung from the electron beams driving type III radio bursts, and measurement of their electron spectrum
4) Hard X-ray studies of polar soft X-ray jets and impulsive solar energetic particle events at the edge of coronal holes, and comparison of these events with observations of 3He and other particles in interplanetary space
5) Study of coronal bremsstrahlung from particles accelerated by coronal mass ejections as they are first launched
6) Study of particles at the coronal reconnection site when flare footpoints are occulted; and
7) Search for hypothetical axion particles created in the solar core via the hard X-ray signal from their conversion to X-rays in the coronal magnetic field.
NuSTAR will also serve as a pathfinder for a future dedicated space mission with enhanced capabilities, such as a satellite version of the FOXSI sounding rocket.

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