Proceedings Article | 19 September 2017
Proc. SPIE. 10397, UV, X-Ray, and Gamma-Ray Space Instrumentation for Astronomy XX
KEYWORDS: Photon counting, Solar energy, Cameras, Spectroscopy, X-rays, Imaging spectroscopy, Coronagraphy, Temporal resolution, Back illuminated sensors, X-ray imaging
The imaging spectroscopic observations for solar soft X-rays are expected to provide us novel and valuable information about the plasma activity in the solar corona, e.g., particle acceleration, heating, shock, etc. However, this type of observations has not been performed yet with enough energy, spatial, and temporal resolutions. In this situation, we plan to realize the imaging spectroscopic observations for solar soft X-rays with a high speed soft X-ray camera and grazing incidence mirrors. Our developing camera consists of a back-illuminated CMOS sensor. This censor has a sensitivity to soft X-rays (0.5 keV - 10 keV), and can perform continuous exposures of 1,000 frame per second for the imaging area of 1k x 100 pixels. We will mount this camera on the FOXSI-3 sounding rocket that is planned to be launched in the summer of 2018. By the combination of our camera and the X-ray mirror on the FOXSI, we can achieve an energy resolution of 0.2 keV, a spatial resolution of ~5 arcsec (1 arcsec sampling), and the temporal resolution of ~10 seconds in an energy range of 0.5 keV - 10 keV. In this presentation, we will explain the science goal, the instrumental design, and the developments of the solar soft X-ray imaging spectrometer.
