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

Abstract

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.

Authors:

Grefenstette, Brian W.  ^[1];

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Glesener, Lindsay  ^[2];

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Krucker, Sam ^[3]; Hudson, Hugh  ^[4];

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Hannah, Iain G.  ^[5];

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Smith, David M. ^[6]; Vogel, Julia K. ^[7]; White, Stephen M. ^[8]; Madsen, Kristin K.  ^[1];

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Marsh, Andrew J. ^[6]; Caspi, Amir  ^[9];

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Chen, Bin ^[10]; Shih, Albert ^[11]; Kuhar, Matej  ^[12];

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Boggs, Steven E. ^[13]; Christensen, Finn E.  ^[14];

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Craig, William W. ^[15]; Forster, Karl ^[1]; Hailey, Charles J. ^[16]; Harrison, Fiona A. ^[1] more »; Miyasaka, Hiromasa  ^[1];

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Stern, Daniel  ^[1];

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Zhang, William W. ^[11] « less

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+ Show Author Affiliations

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)

Publication Date:

2016-07-18

Research Org.:

Lawrence Livermore National Lab. (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States)

Sponsoring Org.:

USDOE; National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA); Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF)

OSTI Identifier:

1343006

Report Number(s):

LLNL-JRNL-678162
Journal ID: ISSN 1538-4357

Grant/Contract Number:  

AC52-07NA27344; NNX15AK26G; NNX14AN84G; NNG08FD60C; NNX12AJ36G; NNX14AG07G

Resource Type:

Accepted Manuscript

Journal Name:

The Astrophysical Journal (Online)

Additional Journal Information:

Journal Name: The Astrophysical Journal (Online); Journal Volume: 826; Journal Issue: 1; Journal ID: ISSN 1538-4357

Publisher:

Institute of Physics (IOP)

Country of Publication:

United States

Language:

English

Subject:

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS; acceleration of particles; methods: data analysis; Sun: X-rays, gamma rays