The First and Following GOES Solar X-ray Imagers (SXI)

Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astronomy

Scientific paper

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Scientific paper

The first Solar X-ray Imager (SXI) is nearing completion and will be integrated onto the GOES-M spacecraft (Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite) for launch in the spring of 2000. SXI instruments are expected to be launched on all subsequent GOES spacecraft after GOES-M, with announcement of the competitively determined follow-on SXI contractor to be announced in late Spring of this year (1997). SXI is designed to fit in the yoke to the solar array of the Earthward-pointing GOES satellite. The first SXI consists of a 16 cm diameter grazing incidence mirror (0.657 m focal length) and xray-to-optical photon-converting detector stack. The detector stack for the first SXI includes a microchannel plate (MCP) for signal amplification, a phosphor for conversion to optical photons, and a fiber optic taper (FOT) for resolution matching to the optical charge coupled device (CCD). Advances in CCD technology make it possible to replace the detector stack with a direct xray-detecting CCD for the follow-on instruments and thereby improve instrument sensitivity by nearly an order of magnitude. The instruments will have 5 arcsec pixels and a 42 arcmin field of view. Images will be acquired at one minute intervals with effectively continuous coverage. (Until two SXI are operating in orbit, there will be some loss of coverage: daily eclipses occur during the two 45-day eclipse seasons each year and SXI will be stowed for some station-keeping activities.) As part of the NOAA/GOES program, SXI will provide regular monitoring of solar active regions, coronal holes, and solar flares. Images will be processed in near real time for solar monitoring and forecasting in support of the NOAA Space Environment Center's solar-terrestrial mission. We plan to make these data available to the research community for further analysis, and encourage the use of these data in developing a greater understanding of solar phenomena that affect the Earth's environment

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