A new space weather CubeSat for understanding solar soft X-ray emission: CubIXSS (the CubeSat Imaging X-ray Solar Spectrometer)
Amir
Caspi
Southwest Research Institute
Poster
The CubeSat Imaging X-ray Solar Spectrometer (CubIXSS) is a 16U CubeSat funded under NASA's space weather initiative via H-FORT to measure soft X-ray spectral emission from the solar corona. CubIXSS uses two co-optimized, cross-calibrated instruments to fill a critical X-ray observational gap:
* MOXSI, a novel diffractive spectral imager using a pinhole camera and X-ray transmission diffraction grating for spectroscopy of flares and active regions over an unprecedented spectral range of 1 to >70 Å; and
* SASS, a suite of four spatially-integrated off-the-shelf spectrometers for high-cadence, high-sensitivity X-ray spectra of lines and continuum from 0.5 to >30 keV.
These instruments provide sensitive, precise measurements of abundances of key trace ion species, whose X-ray spectral signatures provide a unique diagnostic of the chromospheric or coronal origins of heated plasma across a broad temperature range from ~1 to >30 MK, thereby providing insight into links between plasma heating, particle acceleration, and magnetic reconnection. Concurrently, our database of high-cadence, high-resolution soft X-ray spectra across this unprecedented wavelength/energy range can serve as inputs to drive Earth ionosphere models.
CubIXSS is currently undergoing integration and test, and will launch into sun-synchronous polar orbit on Dec 2026 on USSF-178. We will launch together with SunCET, an H-FORT CubeSat using a novel wide-field EUV imager to study CME and solar wind acceleration through the inner and middle corona. In combination, CubIXSS and SunCET are a powerful space weather suite to understand the energetics of solar eruptions and the connections between coronal heating and solar wind formation and acceleration.
* MOXSI, a novel diffractive spectral imager using a pinhole camera and X-ray transmission diffraction grating for spectroscopy of flares and active regions over an unprecedented spectral range of 1 to >70 Å; and
* SASS, a suite of four spatially-integrated off-the-shelf spectrometers for high-cadence, high-sensitivity X-ray spectra of lines and continuum from 0.5 to >30 keV.
These instruments provide sensitive, precise measurements of abundances of key trace ion species, whose X-ray spectral signatures provide a unique diagnostic of the chromospheric or coronal origins of heated plasma across a broad temperature range from ~1 to >30 MK, thereby providing insight into links between plasma heating, particle acceleration, and magnetic reconnection. Concurrently, our database of high-cadence, high-resolution soft X-ray spectra across this unprecedented wavelength/energy range can serve as inputs to drive Earth ionosphere models.
CubIXSS is currently undergoing integration and test, and will launch into sun-synchronous polar orbit on Dec 2026 on USSF-178. We will launch together with SunCET, an H-FORT CubeSat using a novel wide-field EUV imager to study CME and solar wind acceleration through the inner and middle corona. In combination, CubIXSS and SunCET are a powerful space weather suite to understand the energetics of solar eruptions and the connections between coronal heating and solar wind formation and acceleration.
Poster session day
Poster location
25
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