The Solar X-Ray Limb

We describe a new technique to measure the height of the X-ray limb with observations from occulted X-ray flare sources as observed by the RHESSI (the Reuven Ramaty High-Energy Spectroscopic Imager) satellite. This method has model dependencies different from those present in traditional observation...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:The Astrophysical journal 2017-07, Vol.843 (2), p.123
Main Authors: Battaglia, Marina, Hudson, Hugh S., Hurford, Gordon J., Krucker, Säm, Schwartz, Richard A.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Astrophysics
ASTROPHYSICS, COSMOLOGY AND ASTRONOMY
COMPUTERIZED SIMULATION
GAMMA RADIATION
KEV RANGE
LIMBS
MASS DISTRIBUTION
RADIANT HEAT TRANSFER
Radiative transfer
Satellite imagery
SATELLITES
SOLAR FLARES
Solar x-rays
SUN
Sun: flares
Sun: fundamental parameters
Sun: X-rays, gamma rays
Systematic errors
techniques: miscellaneous
Uncertainty
WAVELENGTHS
X ray sources
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Summary:We describe a new technique to measure the height of the X-ray limb with observations from occulted X-ray flare sources as observed by the RHESSI (the Reuven Ramaty High-Energy Spectroscopic Imager) satellite. This method has model dependencies different from those present in traditional observations at optical wavelengths, which depend upon detailed modeling involving radiative transfer in a medium with complicated geometry and flows. It thus provides an independent and more rigorous measurement of the "true" solar radius, which means that of the mass distribution. RHESSI's measurement makes use of the flare X-ray source's spatial Fourier components (the visibilities), which are sensitive to the presence of the sharp edge at the lower boundary of the occulted source. We have found a suitable flare event for analysis, SOL2011-10-20T03:25 (M1.7), and report a first result from this novel technique here. Using a four-minute integration over the 3-25 keV photon energy range, we find R X - ray = 960.11 0.15 0.29 arcsec, at 1 au, where the uncertainties include statistical uncertainties from the method and a systematic error. The standard VAL-C model predicts a value of 959.94 arcsec, which is about 1 below our value.
ISSN:0004-637X
1538-4357
DOI:10.3847/1538-4357/aa76da