The first focused hard X-ray images of the sun with NuSTAR
- California Inst. of Technology (CalTech), Pasadena, CA (United States)
- Univ. of Minnesota - Twin Cities, Minneapolis, MN (United States); Univ. of California, Berkeley, CA (United States)
- Univ. of California, Berkeley, CA (United States); Univ. of Applies Sciences and Arts Northwestern Switzerland, Windisch (Switzerland)
- Univ. of California, Berkeley, CA (United States); Univ. of Glasgow, Glasgow (United Kingdom)
- Univ. of Glasgow, Glasgow (United Kingdom)
- Univ. of California, Santa Cruz, CA (United States)
- Lawrence Livermore National Lab. (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States)
- Air Force Research Lab., Albuquerque, NM (United States)
- Southwest Research Institute, Boulder, CO (United States)
- Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, Cambridge, MA (United States)
- NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC), Greenbelt, MD (United States)
- Univ. of Applied Sciences and Arts Northwestern Switzerland, Windisch (Switzerland)
- Univ. of California, Berkeley, CA (United States)
- Technical Univ. of Denmark, Lyngby (Denmark)
- Univ. of California, Berkeley, CA (United States); Lawrence Livermore National Lab. (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States)
- 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
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