The Reuven Ramaty High Energy Solar Spectroscopic Imager (RHESSI) - Mission Description and Early Results

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-1

   PDF

2. The Reuven Ramaty High-Energy Solar Spectroscopic Imager (Rhessi)

   • R. P. Lin, B. R. Dennis, G. J. Hurford, D. M. Smith, A. Zehnder, P. R. Harvey et al.

   Pages 3-32

3. The RHESSI Spectrometer

   • D. M. Smith, R. P. Lin, P. Turin, D. W. Curtis, J. H. Primbsch, R. D. Campbell et al.

   Pages 33-60

4. The RHESSI Imaging Concept

   • G. J. Hurford, E. J. Schmahl, R. A. Schwartz, A. J. Conway, M. J. Aschwanden, A. Csillaghy et al.

   Pages 61-86

5. RHESSI Aspect Reconstruction

   • M. Fivian, R. Hemmeck, A. McHedlishvili, A. Zehnder

   Pages 87-99

6. The PMTRAS Roll Aspect System on RHESSI

   • G. J. Hurford, D. W. Curtis

   Pages 101-113

7. The RHESSI Spacecraft Instrument Data Processing Unit

   • D. W. Curtis, P. Berg, D. Gordon, P. R. Harvey, D. M. Smith, A. Zehnder

   Pages 115-124

8. RHESSI as a Hard X-ray Polarimeter

   • Mark L. McConnell, James M. Ryan, David M. Smith, Robert P. Lin, A. Gordon Emslie

   Pages 125-142

9. The RHESSI Experimental Data Center

   • Pascal Saint-Hilaire, Christoph Von Praun, Etzard Stolte, Gustavo Alonso, Arnold O. Benz, Thomas Gross

   Pages 143-164

10. RHESSI Data Analysis Software: Rationale and Methods

    • R. A. Schwartz, A. Csillaghy, A. K. Tolbert, G. J. Hurford, J. McTiernan, D. Zarro

    Pages 165-191

11. Reconstruction of RHESSI Solar Flare Images with a Forward Fitting Method

    • Markus J. Aschwanden, Ed Schmahl, Rhessi Team

    Pages 193-211

12. Time-Domain Demodulation of RHESSI Light Curves

    • Kaspar Arzner

    Pages 213-227

13. Relative Timing and Spectra of Solar Flare Hard X-ray Sources

    • Säm Krucker, R. P. Lin

    Pages 229-243

14. Modeling Images and Spectra of a Solar Flare Observed by RHESSI on 20 February 2002

    • Linhui Sui, Gordon D. Holman, Brian R. Dennis, Säm Krucker, Richard A. Schwartz, Kim Tolbert

    Pages 245-259

15. Hard X-ray and Metric/Decimetric Radio Observations of the 20 February 2002 Solar Flare

    • N. Vilmer, S. Krucker, R. P. Lin, RHESSI Team

    Pages 261-272

16. RHESSI Observations of the Size Scales of Solar Hard X-ray Sources

    • E. J. Schmahl, G. J. Hurford

    Pages 273-286

17. Energy Budget and Imaging Spectroscopy of a Compact Flare

    • Pascal Saint-Hilaire, Arnold O. Benz

    Pages 287-306

18. Spectral and Spatial Variations of Flare Hard X-ray Footpoints

    • L. Fletcher, H. S. Hudson

    Pages 307-321

19. Energy Dependence of Electron Trapping in a Solar Flare

    • David Alexander, Thomas R. Metcalf

    Pages 323-340

20. RHESSI and TRACE Observations of the 21 April 2002 X1.5 Flare

    • Peter T. Gallagher, Brian R. Dennis, Säm Krucker, Richard A. Schwartz, A. Kimberley Tolbert

    Pages 341-356

The Reuven Ramaty High Energy Solar Spectroscopic Imager (RHESSI) satellite was launched on 5 February 2002. Its objective is to study the energy release and particle acceleration in solar flares through observations of X-rays and gamma rays. Two novel technologies are combined to obtain both spectra and images over a broad energy range. For the spectroscopy, cooled hyperpure germanium detectors are used to cover the energy range from 3 keV to 17 MeV with unprecedented keV-class resolution. Since focusing optics are not possible for making images with such high energy photons, tungsten and molybdenum absorbing grids are used to modulate the X-rays and gamma-rays coming from the Sun as the spacecraft rotates. This allows the spatial Fourier components of the source to be determined so that images can be made in spectral ranges where astronomical images have never been produced before. These new instrumental techniques require equally innovative software to reconstruct X-ray and gamma-ray spectra and images from the observations.
Ample solar activity, abundant observations, and an open data policy have attracted many researchers. Astronomers face in the RHESSI mission an exciting new scientific potential. It has unusually broad possibilities for improving our understanding of the enigmatic solar flare phenomenon that is becoming increasingly important as society depends more and more on space-based technologies.
In this volume, the functioning of RHESSI is explained, the data analysis techniques including spectroscopy and image reconstruction are introduced, and the experiences of the first few months of operation are summarized. First scientific results are presented that provide the essential base for more extended studies using RHESSI data and complementary observations by instruments on other spacecraft and at ground-based solar observatories.
Scientists and students will find here the latest discoveries in solar flare research, as well as inspiration for future work. The papers will serve as references for the many new discoveries to come from the continuing RHESSI observations.

• Solar flare
• instruments
• observatory
• solar
• solar activity
• spectroscopy
• sun

"...important and useful to the study of solar flares and related phenomena."
(Space Flight, 45 (2003)

• Space Sciences Laboratory and Physics Department, University of California, Berkeley, USA

  Robert P. Lin

• Laboratory for Astronomy and Solar Physics, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, USA

  Brian R. Dennis

• Institute of Astronomy, ETH-Zentrum, Zürich, Switzerland

  Arnold O. Benz

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