KEYWORDS: Sensors, Device simulation, Photons, Field programmable gate arrays, Signal detection, Solar processes, X-rays, Temperature sensors, Data modeling, Data storage
The Spectrometer Telescope for Imaging X-rays (STIX) is one of 10 instruments on-board Solar Orbiter mission of the European Space Agency (ESA) scheduled to be launched in 2017. STIX is aimed to provide imaging spectroscopy of solar thermal and non-thermal hard X-ray emissions from 4 keV to 150 keV using a Fourier-imaging technique. The instrument employs a set of tungsten grids in front of 32 pixelized CdTe detectors. These detectors are source of data collected and analyzed in real time by Instrument Data Processing Unit (IDPU). In order to support development and implementation of on-board algorithms a dedicated detector hardware simulator is designed and manufactured as a part of Electrical Ground Support Equipment (EGSE) for STIX instrument. Complementary to the hardware simulator is data analysis software which is used to generate input data and to analyze output data. The simulator will allow sending strictly defined data from all detectors’ pixels at the input of the IDPU for further analysis of instrument response. Particular emphasis is given here to the simulator hardware design.
A. Benz, S. Krucker, G. Hurford, N. Arnold, P. Orleanski, H.-P. Gröbelbauer, S. Klober, L. Iseli, H. Wiehl, A. Csillaghy, L. Etesi, N. Hochmuth, M. Battaglia, M. Bednarzik, R. Resanovic, O. Grimm, G. Viertel, V. Commichau, A. Meuris, O. Limousin, S. Brun, N. Vilmer, K. Skup, R. Graczyk, M. Stolarski, M. Michalska, W. Nowosielski, A. Cichocki, M. Mosdorf, K. Seweryn, A. Przepiórka, J. Sylwester, M. Kowalinski, T. Mrozek, P. Podgorski, G. Mann, H. Aurass, E. Popow, H. Önel, F. Dionies, S. Bauer, J. Rendtel, A. Warmuth, M. Woche, D. Plüschke, W. Bittner, J. Paschke, D. Wolker, H. Van Beek, F. Farnik, J. Kasparova, A. Veronig, I. Kienreich, P. Gallagher, D. Bloomfield, M. Piana, A. Massone, B. Dennis, R. Schwarz, R. Lin
The Spectrometer Telescope for Imaging X-rays (STIX) is one of 10 instruments on board Solar Orbiter, a confirmed Mclass mission of the European Space Agency (ESA) within the Cosmic Vision program scheduled to be launched in 2017. STIX applies a Fourier-imaging technique using a set of tungsten grids (at pitches from 0.038 to 1 mm) in front of 32 pixelized CdTe detectors to provide imaging spectroscopy of solar thermal and non-thermal hard X-ray emissions from 4 to 150 keV. The status of the instrument reviewed in this paper is based on the design that passed the Preliminary Design Review (PDR) in early 2012. Particular emphasis is given to the first light of the detector system called Caliste-SO.
The European Grid of Solar Observations (EGSO) is a Grid test-bed that will change the way users analyze solar data.
One of the major hurdles in the analysis of solar data is finding what data are available and retrieving those required. EGSO is integrating the access to solar data by building a Grid including
solar archives around the world. The Grid relies on metadata and tools for selecting, processing and retrieving distributed and heterogeneous solar data. EGSO is also creating a solar feature catalogue giving for the first time the ability to select solar data based on phenomena and events. In essence, EGSO is providing the fabric of a virtual observatory.
Since the first release of EGSO in September 2003, members of the solar community have been involved in product testing. The constant testing and feedback allows us to assure the usability of the system. The capabilities of the latest release will be described, and the scientific problems that it addresses discussed.
EGSO is funded under the IST (Information Society Technologies) thematic priority of the European Commission's Fifth Framework Programme (FP5) – it started in March 2002 and will last for three years. The EGSO Consortium comprises 11 institutes from Europe and the US and is led by the Mullard Space Science Laboratory of
University College London. EGSO is collaborating with other groups in the US who are working on similar virtual observatory projects for solar and heliospheric data with the objective of providing integrated access to these data.
Frank Hill, Andre Csillaghy, Robert Bentley, Jean Aboudarham, Ester Antonucci, Anthony Finkelstein, Luigi Ciminiera, Joseph Gurman, Isabelle Scholl, Dave Pike, Valentin Zharkova
KEYWORDS: Observatories, Data modeling, Solar processes, Data archive systems, Human-machine interfaces, Satellites, Interfaces, Earth observing sensors, Chemical elements, Applied sciences
The European Grid of Solar Observations (EGSO) is a project to develop a virtual observatory for the solar physics community. Like in all such projects, a vital component is a schema that adequately describes the data in the distributed data sets. Here, we discuss the schema in general terms, and present a draft example of a portion of a possible XML schema.
Robert Lin, Gordon Hurford, Norman Madden, Brian Dennis, Carol Crannell, Gordon Holman, Reuven Ramaty, Tycho von Rosenvinge, Alex Zehnder, H. Frank van Beek, Patricia Bornmann, Richard Canfield, A. Gordon Emslie, Hugh Hudson, Arnold Benz, John Brown, Shinzo Enome, Takeo Kosugi, Nicole Vilmer, David Smith, Jim McTiernan, Isabel Hawkins, Said Slassi-Sennou, Andre Csillaghy, George Fisher, Chris Johns-Krull, Richard Schwartz, Larry Orwig, Dominic Zarro, Ed Schmahl, Markus Aschwanden, Peter Harvey, David Curtis, David Pankow, David Clark, Robert Boyle, Reinhold Henneck, Akilo Michedlishvili, Knud Thomsen, Jeff Preble, Frank Snow
The primary scientific objective of the High Energy Solar Spectroscopic Imager (HESSI) Small Explorer mission selected by NASA is to investigate the physics of particle acceleration and energy release in solar flares. Observations will be made of x-rays and (gamma) rays from approximately 3 keV to approximately 20 MeV with an unprecedented combination of high resolution imaging and spectroscopy. The HESSI instrument utilizes Fourier- transform imaging with 9 bi-grid rotating modulation collimators and cooled germanium detectors. The instrument is mounted on a Sun-pointed spin-stabilized spacecraft and placed into a 600 km-altitude, 38 degrees inclination orbit.It will provide the first imaging spectroscopy in hard x-rays, with approximately 2 arcsecond angular resolution, time resolution down to tens of ms, and approximately 1 keV energy resolution; the first solar (gamma) ray line spectroscopy with approximately 1-5 keV energy resolution; and the first solar (gamma) -ray line and continuum imaging,with approximately 36-arcsecond angular resolution. HESSI is planned for launch in July 2000, in time to detect the thousands of flares expected during the next solar maximum.
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