BackForwardInstrument:  STIX 

Instrument details
Acronym STIX
Full name X-ray Spectrometer/Telescope
Purpose To provide imaging spectroscopy of solar thermal and non-thermal X-ray emission, to acquire quantitative information on the timing, location, intensity, and spectra of accelerated electrons as well as of high temperature thermal plasmas, mostly associated with flares and/or microflares.
Short description Based on a Fourier-transform imaging technique covering the range 4-150 keV exploiting three units: a) The Sun shades; b) The Imager; and c) The Spectrometer. 64 collimator elements for the energy ranges 15-24, 24-35, 35-57 and 57-100 keV
Background Follow-on of HXT flown on Solar-A
Scanning Technique Observation from a solar orbit by a 8x8 collimator array
Resolution Changing with the distance from the Sun. 400 km at perihelion
Coverage / Cycle Full solar disk at 0.1 s intervals
Mass Power Data Rate

 

Providing Agency SSO
Instrument Maturity Flown on an R&D satellite
Utilization Period: 2020 to 2030
Last update: 2021-09-29
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 2
  • Solar magnetograph, solar EUV/X-ray imagery and EUV/X-ray irradiance, both on the Earth-Sun line and off the Earth-Sun line
  • Solar X-ray spectrometer [from solar orbit, ecliptic, L5]
  • Solar X-ray imager [from solar orbit, ecliptic, L5]
Mission objectives
Primary mission objectives
  • Solar X-ray flux spectrum
  • Solar X-ray image
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
Note: * Primary mission objective.
VariableRelevance for measuring this variableOperational limitationsExplanation
Solar X-ray flux spectrum*1 - primaryNo specific limitation.High spectral resolution, wide dynamic range
Solar X-ray image*1 - primaryNo specific limitation.Spectrometry with high spatial resolution