DOE PAGES title logo U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

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)

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

References (55)

FOXSI-2: Upgrades of the Focusing Optics X-ray Solar Imager for its Second Flight journal March 2016
Cosmic flare transients - Constraints upon models for energy storage and release derived from the event frequency distribution journal June 1978
Particle Densities Within the Acceleration Region of a Solar Flare journal December 2013
Energy Distribution of Heating Processes in the Quiet Solar Corona journal July 1998
The X-Ray Telescope (XRT) for the Hinode Mission journal July 2007
THE NUCLEAR SPECTROSCOPIC TELESCOPE ARRAY ( NuSTAR ) HIGH-ENERGY X-RAY MISSION journal May 2013
Solar flares, microflares, nanoflares, and coronal heating journal June 1991
Solar flares, microflares, nanoflares, and coronal heating journal June 1991
Measurements of the Coronal Acceleration Region of a Solar Flare journal April 2010
NO TIME FOR DEAD TIME: TIMING ANALYSIS OF BRIGHT BLACK HOLE BINARIES WITH NuSTAR journal February 2015
On the Absorption of X‐Rays in the Interstellar Medium journal October 2000
Particle Densities Within the Acceleration Region of a Solar Flare journal December 2013
THE NUCLEAR SPECTROSCOPIC TELESCOPE ARRAY ( NuSTAR ) HIGH-ENERGY X-RAY MISSION journal May 2013
CONSTRAINING THE HARD X-RAY PROPERTIES OF THE QUIET SUN WITH NEW RHESSI OBSERVATIONS journal November 2010
Microflares and the Statistics of X-ray Flares journal July 2011
FOXSI-2: Upgrades of the Focusing Optics X-ray Solar Imager for its Second Flight journal March 2016
The Reuven Ramaty High-Energy Solar Spectroscopic Imager (RHESSI) journal November 2002
Evidence for x Rays From Sources Outside the Solar System journal December 1962
The first X-ray imaging spectroscopy of quiescent solar active regions with NuSTAR text January 2016
New Observations of the Solar 0.5–5 kev soft X-Ray Spectrum journal March 2015
Hard X‐Ray Emissions from Partially Occulted Solar Flares journal February 2008
On Solving the Coronal Heating Problem journal March 2006
Evidence for x Rays From Sources Outside the Solar System journal December 1962
New Observations of the Solar 0.5–5 kev soft X-Ray Spectrum journal March 2015
CALIBRATION OF THE NuSTAR HIGH-ENERGY FOCUSING X-RAY TELESCOPE journal September 2015
A loop-top hard X-ray source in a compact solar flare as evidence for magnetic reconnection journal October 1994
THE FIRST X-RAY IMAGING SPECTROSCOPY OF QUIESCENT SOLAR ACTIVE REGIONS WITH NuSTAR journal March 2016
NO TIME FOR DEAD TIME: TIMING ANALYSIS OF BRIGHT BLACK HOLE BINARIES WITH NuSTAR journal February 2015
Atomic Data for Astrophysics. II. New Analytic Fits for Photoionization Cross Sections of Atoms and Ions text January 1996
Statistical Analysis of the Energy Distribution of Nanoflares in the Quiet Sun journal January 2000
Implications of X-ray Observations for Electron Acceleration and Propagation in Solar Flares journal August 2011
Elemental abundances and temperatures of quiescent solar active region cores from X-ray observations journal April 2014
An Observational Overview of Solar Flares journal August 2011
THE FIRST X-RAY IMAGING SPECTROSCOPY OF QUIESCENT SOLAR ACTIVE REGIONS WITH NuSTAR journal March 2016
The Reuven Ramaty High-Energy Solar Spectroscopic Imager (RHESSI) journal November 2002
Measurements of the Coronal Acceleration Region of a Solar Flare journal April 2010
The SOLAR-A mission: An overview journal November 1991
CONSTRAINING THE HARD X-RAY PROPERTIES OF THE QUIET SUN WITH NEW RHESSI OBSERVATIONS journal November 2010
SphinX MEASUREMENTS OF THE 2009 SOLAR MINIMUM X-RAY EMISSION journal May 2012
On the Absorption of X-rays in the Interstellar Medium text January 2000
PERVASIVE FAINT Fe XIX EMISSION FROM A SOLAR ACTIVE REGION OBSERVED WITH EUNIS-13: EVIDENCE FOR NANOFLARE HEATING journal July 2014
Solar hard X-ray microflares journal August 1984
Nanoflares and the solar X-ray corona journal July 1988
The NOAA Goes-12 Solar X-Ray Imager (SXI) 1. Instrument, Operations, and Data journal February 2005
Atomic Data for Astrophysics. II. New Analytic FITS for Photoionization Cross Sections of Atoms and Ions journal July 1996
Energy Release and Particle Acceleration in Flares: Summary and Future Prospects journal July 2011
An Observational Overview of Solar Flares book January 2011
SphinX MEASUREMENTS OF THE 2009 SOLAR MINIMUM X-RAY EMISSION journal May 2012
PERVASIVE FAINT Fe XIX EMISSION FROM A SOLAR ACTIVE REGION OBSERVED WITH EUNIS-13: EVIDENCE FOR NANOFLARE HEATING journal July 2014
No Time for Dead Time: Timing analysis of bright black hole binaries with NuSTAR text January 2014
The SOLAR-A mission: An overview journal November 1991
Evidence for Nonuniform Heating of Coronal Loops Inferred from Multithread Modeling of TRACE Data journal October 2000
Kappa Distribution Model for hard X-Ray Coronal Sources of Solar Flares journal January 2013
Kappa Distribution Model for hard X-Ray Coronal Sources of Solar Flares journal January 2013
The SOLAR-A Mission: an Overview book January 1991

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