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Title: The first focused hard X-ray images of the sun with NuSTAR

Journal Article · · The Astrophysical Journal (Online)
ORCiD logo [1]; ORCiD logo [2];  [3]; ORCiD logo [4]; ORCiD logo [5];  [6];  [7];  [8]; ORCiD logo [1];  [6]; ORCiD logo [9];  [10];  [11]; ORCiD logo [12];  [13]; ORCiD logo [14];  [15];  [1];  [16];  [1] more »; ORCiD logo [1]; ORCiD logo [1];  [11] « less
  1. California Inst. of Technology (CalTech), Pasadena, CA (United States)
  2. Univ. of Minnesota - Twin Cities, Minneapolis, MN (United States); Univ. of California, Berkeley, CA (United States)
  3. Univ. of California, Berkeley, CA (United States); Univ. of Applies Sciences and Arts Northwestern Switzerland, Windisch (Switzerland)
  4. Univ. of California, Berkeley, CA (United States); Univ. of Glasgow, Glasgow (United Kingdom)
  5. Univ. of Glasgow, Glasgow (United Kingdom)
  6. Univ. of California, Santa Cruz, CA (United States)
  7. Lawrence Livermore National Lab. (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States)
  8. Air Force Research Lab., Albuquerque, NM (United States)
  9. Southwest Research Institute, Boulder, CO (United States)
  10. Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, Cambridge, MA (United States)
  11. NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC), Greenbelt, MD (United States)
  12. Univ. of Applied Sciences and Arts Northwestern Switzerland, Windisch (Switzerland)
  13. Univ. of California, Berkeley, CA (United States)
  14. Technical Univ. of Denmark, Lyngby (Denmark)
  15. Univ. of California, Berkeley, CA (United States); Lawrence Livermore National Lab. (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States)
  16. Columbia Univ., New York, NY (United States)
+ Show Author Affiliations

Here, we present results from the the first campaign of dedicated solar observations undertaken by the Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope ARray (NuSTAR) hard X-ray (HXR) telescope. Designed as an astrophysics mission, NuSTAR nonetheless has the capability of directly imaging the Sun at HXR energies (>3 keV) with an increase in sensitivity of at least two magnitude compared to current non-focusing telescopes. In this paper we describe the scientific areas where NuSTAR will make major improvements on existing solar measurements. We report on the techniques used to observe the Sun with NuSTAR, their limitations and complications, and the procedures developed to optimize solar data quality derived from our experience with the initial solar observations. These first observations are briefly described, including the measurement of the Fe K-shell lines in a decaying X-class flare, HXR emission from high in the solar corona, and full-disk HXR images of the Sun.

Research Organization:
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE; National Aeronautic and Space Administration (NASA); Swiss National Science Foundation
Grant/Contract Number:
AC52-07NA27344
OSTI ID:
1343006
Alternate ID(s):
OSTI ID: 22666055
Report Number(s):
LLNL-JRNL--678162
Journal Information:
The Astrophysical Journal (Online), Journal Name: The Astrophysical Journal (Online) Journal Issue: 1 Vol. 826; ISSN 1538-4357
Publisher:
Institute of Physics (IOP)Copyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

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Cited By (16)

NuSTAR hard X-ray observation of a sub-A class solar flare text January 2017
Quantifying the Influence of Key Physical Processes on the Formation of Emission Lines Observed by IRIS . I. Non-equilibrium Ionization and Density-dependent Rates journal February 2019
IRIS observations of short-term variability in moss associated with transient hot coronal loops text January 2019
IRIS Observations of Short-term Variability in Moss Associated with Transient Hot Coronal Loops journal January 2020
First NuSTAR Limits on Quiet Sun Hard X-Ray Transient Events journal November 2017
NuSTAR Hard X-Ray Observation of a Sub-A Class Solar Flare journal August 2017
Hot Plasma in a Quiescent Solar Active Region as Measured by RHESSI , XRT, and AIA journal May 2019
Microflare Heating of a Solar Active Region Observed with NuSTAR , Hinode /XRT, and SDO /AIA journal July 2017
Hard X-Ray Constraints on Small-scale Coronal Heating Events journal August 2018
Quantifying the Influence of Key Physical Processes on the Formation of Emission Lines Observed by IRIS: I. Non-Equilibrium Ionization and Density-Dependent Rates text January 2019
Joint X-Ray, EUV, and UV Observations of a Small Microflare journal August 2019
Hard X-Ray Constraints on Small-Scale Coronal Heating Events text January 2018
NuSTAR Detection of X-Ray Heating Events in the Quiet Sun text January 2018
NuSTAR Detection of X-Ray Heating Events in the Quiet Sun journal March 2018
Solar UV and X-ray spectral diagnostics journal August 2018
Solar UV and X-Ray Spectral Diagnostics text January 2018

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