Science Objectives
From RHESSI Wiki
Contents |
Primary Mission Objective
Explore the basic physics of particle acceleration and energy release in solar flares Science Objectives
Solar Objectives
- Determine the frequency, location, and evolution of impulsive energy release in the corona
- Study the acceleration of electrons, protons, and heavier ions in flares
- Study the heating of plasma to tens of millions of degrees and determine its relationship to particle acceleration
- Study the propagation and evolution of energetic particles in flares
- Determine the relative abundances of accelerated and ambient ions in flares
Non-Solar Objectives
- Obtain images and spectra of the Crab Nebula with 2 arcsecond spatial resolution and ~1 keV spectral resolution
- Detect and obtain high resolution spectra of gamma-ray bursts and cosmic and terrestrial transient sources over a large fraction of the sky
- Search for cyclotron line features in gamma-ray bursts and cosmic transient sources
- Obtain high resolution spectra and search for line features in steady X-ray and gamma-ray sources
Primary Observations
Simultaneous, high resolution imaging and spectroscopy of solar flares from 3 keV X-rays to 17 MeV gamma rays with high time resolution
Expected Numbers of Flares:
- Tens of thousands of microflares
- Over a thousand X-ray flares with crude imaging and spectra to >100 keV
- Hundreds of flares with >1000 counts per second above 20 keV, allowing spatial changes to be followed on timescales of 0.1 seconds.
- Tens of flares sufficiently intense to allow the finest possible imaging spectroscopy
- Up to 100 flares with the detection of gamma-ray lines
- Tens of flares with detailed gamma-ray line spectroscopy and the location and extent of the source determined to ~40 arcseconds
