Instrument overview of the Swift Solar Activity X-ray Imager (SSAXI-Rocket)

Christopher S. Moore; Sophia Sánchez-Maes; Jae Sub Hong; Johnny Ho; Elias Aguirre Contreras; Isaac Anderson; David Caldwell; Gabriel Dubinsky; Tom Gauron; Edward Hertz; Almus Kenter; Kenneth McCracken; Suzanne Romaine

doi:10.1117/12.3020753

21 August 2024 Instrument overview of the Swift Solar Activity X-ray Imager (SSAXI-Rocket)

Christopher S. Moore, Sophia Sánchez-Maes, Jae Sub Hong, Johnny Ho, Elias Aguirre Contreras, Isaac Anderson, David Caldwell, Gabriel Dubinsky, Tom Gauron, Edward Hertz, Almus Kenter, Kenneth McCracken, Suzanne Romaine

Author Affiliations +

Proceedings Volume 13093, Space Telescopes and Instrumentation 2024: Ultraviolet to Gamma Ray; 130937G (2024) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.3020753
Event: SPIE Astronomical Telescopes + Instrumentation, 2024, Yokohama, Japan

Abstract

The Swift Solar Activity X-Ray Imager (SSAXI-Rocket) sounding rocket experiment is a direct-imaging, soft Xray telescope optimized for the observation of large (GOES C class-X class) solar flares. SSAXI-Rocket has high temporal sampling cadence (> 5 Hz) enabled by a fast-readout CMOS detector. A single Wolter-1 optic focuses light onto the detector plane. The optic has a 15.8′′ half-power diameter (HPD) angular resolution on-axis and an effective area of 0.64 cm² at 4.5 keV. The SSAXI-Rocket camera reads out a spectrally integrated signal, and the system spatial resolution is designed to be < 16′′ HPD over the instrument field of view (> 55′ × 55′). The detector is a back-illuminated delta doped CMOS (2048 × 2048 pixels) with 10 μm pitch pixels. This manuscript details our instrument design, and overviews the processes employed in telescope alignment, testing, delivery, and integration onto the Hi-C Sounding Rocket. We present the “as-built” projected flight performance of the delivered SSAXI-Rocket flight system, obtained by synthesizing the results of pre-flight subsystem testing and measurements performed during system integration and alignment.

(2024) Published by SPIE. Downloading of the abstract is permitted for personal use only.

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Christopher S. Moore, Sophia Sánchez-Maes, Jae Sub Hong, Johnny Ho, Elias Aguirre Contreras, Isaac Anderson, David Caldwell, Gabriel Dubinsky, Tom Gauron, Edward Hertz, Almus Kenter, Kenneth McCracken, and Suzanne Romaine "Instrument overview of the Swift Solar Activity X-ray Imager (SSAXI-Rocket)", Proc. SPIE 13093, Space Telescopes and Instrumentation 2024: Ultraviolet to Gamma Ray, 130937G (21 August 2024); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.3020753

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KEYWORDS

Cameras

CMOS sensors

Equipment

Imaging systems

Solar processes

Tunable filters

Telescopes

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