NGSPM Objectives Addressed by the FOXSI SMEX Mission

Albert Y Shih1, Steven Christe2, Sam Krucker3, Lindsay Glesener4, Pascal Saint-Hilaire3 and Amir Caspi5, (1)NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD, United States, (2)NASA GSFC, Solar Physics Lab, Greenbelt, MD, United States, (3)UC Berkeley, Space Science Lab, Berkeley, CA, United States, (4)University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, MN, United States, (5)Southwest Research Institute, Boulder, CO, United States
Abstract:
In addition to the baseline instrument complement recommended by the NGSPM study, the study also identified a hard X-ray spectroscopic imager as the next-highest-priority instrument. While there have been significant advances in our understanding of impulsive energy release at the Sun since the advent of RHESSI X-ray observations, there is a clear need for new X-ray observations that can capture the full range of emission in flares (e.g., faint coronal sources near bright chromospheric sources), follow the intricate evolution of energy release and changes in morphology, and search for the signatures of impulsive energy release in even the quiescent Sun. The NGSPM study acknowledges grazing-incidence focusing X-ray optics as the way to achieve spectroscopic imaging with the combination of high dynamic range and high sensitivity.

The FOXSI Small Explorer (SMEX) mission, currently undergoing a Phase A concept study, addresses this measurement need within the envelope of a NASA SMEX mission. FOXSI's X-ray observations will provide quantitative information on (1) the non-thermal populations of accelerated electrons and (2) the thermal plasma distributions at the high temperatures inaccessible through other wavelengths. FOXSI is proposed to launch in 2022, and thus there will be synergy between its X-ray observations and the observations made at other wavelengths by the mission(s) recommended by the NGSPM study. Here we present examples with simulated observations to show how FOXSI's capabilities address NGSPM science objectives.

Back to: Next-Generation Solar Physics Missions III