BackForwardInstrument:  SXI (SMILE) 

Instrument details
Acronym SXI (SMILE)
Full name Soft X-ray imager
Purpose To map the location, shape and motion of the boundaries of Earth's magnetosphere.
Short description
  • SXI is a wide-field lobster-eye telescope using micropore optics to spectrally map the location, shape, and motion of Earth's magnetospheric boundaries
  • Observes emission from the solar wind charge exchange process
Background
  • New development
Scanning Technique
Resolution
Coverage / Cycle
Mass Power Data Rate

 

Providing Agency ESA
Instrument Maturity Flown on an R&D satellite
Utilization Period: 2026 to 2029
Last update: 2025-11-24
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
  • Space radiometer or spectrometer
WIGOS Subcomponents
  • Subcomponent 3
  • UV spectral imagery (e.g. GEO, HEO, MEO, LEO)
  • X-ray spectrometer [from GEO, HEO, MEO, LEO]
Mission objectives
Primary mission objectives
  • X-ray sky 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.