Solar X-ray Irradiance with Hinode/XRT

Advisor: Aki Takeda and Rhiannon Fleming

Montana State University (MSU) is home of Hinode/XRT Synoptic Composite Image Archive ( SCIA ), which is the archive of soft X-ray full-Sun images obtained with the X-Ray Telescope aboard the Hinode satellite . Our images are posted daily to the SolarMonitor , a popular site for solar researchers to check the current solar condition.

Using this archive, we can study solar activities in terms of the Sun's radiation in soft X-ray wavelengths. In this project, we will process the XRT/SCIA images taken from 2006 to present to derive the soft X-ray irradiance during this period. The student will learn how to process Hinode/XRT FITS data for quantitative analysis using the data analysis software IDL(Interactive Data Language): data selection, derivation of temperature and emission measure, calculation of the XRT irradiance in the physical unit (W/m2), etc. This project is continued from 2021. This year, we will derive the irradiance with two different methods and compare the results.

As a bonus, the student will have a few opportunities to watch and learn how an international satellite project like Hinode is operated. As one of US institutes participating the Hinode satellite operation, we have a duty week in July, in which we take control of the XRT observation.

You can read about a related REU project in 2018 , which is being published in the Astrophysical Journal.