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Instrument details
Acronym
RHESSI
Full name
Reuven Ramaty High Energy Solar Spectroscopic Imager
Purpose
To obtain high fidelity color movies of solar flares in X-rays and gamma rays and to provide high resolution spectroscopy.
Short description
Fourier Transform Spectrometer: energy range 0.003-17 MeV (soft X-rays to gamma-rays); energy resolution < 1 keV at 3 keV, increasing to ~5 keV at 5 MeV; temporal resolution 2 s for detailed image, tens of ms for basic image
Background
New development
Scanning Technique
Sun pointing from a low-inclination LEO. CCD array with field of view 1° (full Sun disk); angular resolution 2.3 arcsec for 3-100 keV, 7 arcsec at 400 keV, 36 arcsec above 1 MeV
Resolution
1700 km for 3-100 keV, 5000 km at 400 keV, 27000 km above 1 MeV; at Sun surface
Coverage / Cycle
Full solar disk in 2 s
Mass
131 kg
Power
143 W
Data Rate
Providing Agency
NASA
Instrument Maturity
Flown on an R&D satellite
Utilization Period:
2002 to 2018-08-16
Last update:
2021-10-01
Detailed characteristics
Satellites this instrument is flying on
Note: a red tag indicates satellites no longer operational, a
green tag indicates operational satellites, a blue tag indicates
future satellites
Instrument classification
Solar and space environment monitors Solar activity monitor
WIGOS Subcomponents
Subcomponent 1 X-ray spectrometer at LEO Subcomponent 2 Solar X-ray spectrometer [from L1, GEO, LEO] Solar X-ray imager [from L1, GEO, LEO]
Mission objectives
Primary mission objectives Solar X-ray flux spectrum Solar X-ray image Solar gamma-ray flux spectrum Show all Show fewer
Tentative Evaluation of Measurements
The following list indicates which measurements can typically be
retrieved from this category of instrument. To see a full Gap Analysis by Variable,
click on the respective variable.
Note: table can be sorted by clicking on the column headers
Variable Relevance for measuring this variable Operational limitations Explanation
Solar gamma-ray flux spectrum 2 - very high No specific limitation. Moderate dynamic range, but associated to X-ray observation
Solar X-ray flux spectrum 1 - primary No specific limitation. High spectral resolution, wide dynamic range
Solar X-ray image 2 - very high No specific limitation. Spectrometry with coarse spatial resolution
Instrument: RHESSI