doi:10.1023/A:1022428818870
Solar Physics
210 (1-2): 3-32, November 2002
Copyright © 2002 Kluwer Academic Publishers
All rights reserved

The Reuven Ramaty High-Energy Solar Spectroscopic Imager (RHESSI)

R.P. Lin
Space Sciences Laboratory, University of California Berkeley, Berkeley, CA 94720-7450, U.S.A.

B.R. Dennis
NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD 20771, U.S.A.

G.J. Hurford
Space Sciences Laboratory, University of California Berkeley, Berkeley, CA 94720-7450, U.S.A.

D.M. Smith
Space Sciences Laboratory, University of California Berkeley, Berkeley, CA 94720-7450, U.S.A.

A. Zehnder
Paul Scherrer Institut (PSI), CH-5232 Villigen PSI, Switzerland

P.R. Harvey
Space Sciences Laboratory, University of California Berkeley, Berkeley, CA 94720-7450, U.S.A.

D.W. Curtis
Space Sciences Laboratory, University of California Berkeley, Berkeley, CA 94720-7450, U.S.A.

D. Pankow
Space Sciences Laboratory, University of California Berkeley, Berkeley, CA 94720-7450, U.S.A.

P. Turin
Space Sciences Laboratory, University of California Berkeley, Berkeley, CA 94720-7450, U.S.A.

M. Bester
Space Sciences Laboratory, University of California Berkeley, Berkeley, CA 94720-7450, U.S.A.

A. Csillaghy
Space Sciences Laboratory, University of California Berkeley, Berkeley, CA 94720-7450, U.S.A. University of Applied Sciences, CH-5210 Windisch, Switzerland

M. Lewis
Space Sciences Laboratory, University of California Berkeley, Berkeley, CA 94720-7450, U.S.A.

N. Madden
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA 94720, U.S.A.

H.F. van Beek
H. F. van Beek Consultancy (VBC), 3971 LB Driebergen, The Netherlands

M. Appleby
Tecomet, Woburn, MA 01801, now at Mikro Systems Inc., Charlottesville, VA, U.S.A.

T. Raudorf
Ortec, Oak Ridge, TN 37831–0895

J. McTiernan
Space Sciences Laboratory, University of California Berkeley, Berkeley, CA 94720-7450, U.S.A.

R. Ramaty
NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD 20771, U.S.A. Deceased

E. Schmahl
NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD 20771, U.S.A. Universtity of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742, U.S.A.

R. Schwartz
NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD 20771, U.S.A.

S. Krucker
Space Sciences Laboratory, University of California Berkeley, Berkeley, CA 94720-7450, U.S.A.

R. Abiad
Space Sciences Laboratory, University of California Berkeley, Berkeley, CA 94720-7450, U.S.A.

T. Quinn
Space Sciences Laboratory, University of California Berkeley, Berkeley, CA 94720-7450, U.S.A.

P. Berg
Space Sciences Laboratory, University of California Berkeley, Berkeley, CA 94720-7450, U.S.A.

M. Hashii
Space Sciences Laboratory, University of California Berkeley, Berkeley, CA 94720-7450, U.S.A.

R. Sterling
Space Sciences Laboratory, University of California Berkeley, Berkeley, CA 94720-7450, U.S.A.

R. Jackson
Space Sciences Laboratory, University of California Berkeley, Berkeley, CA 94720-7450, U.S.A.

R. Pratt
Space Sciences Laboratory, University of California Berkeley, Berkeley, CA 94720-7450, U.S.A.

R.D. Campbell
Space Sciences Laboratory, University of California Berkeley, Berkeley, CA 94720-7450, U.S.A.

D. Malone
Space Sciences Laboratory, University of California Berkeley, Berkeley, CA 94720-7450, U.S.A.

D. Landis
Space Sciences Laboratory, University of California Berkeley, Berkeley, CA 94720-7450, U.S.A.

C.P. Barrington-Leigh
Space Sciences Laboratory, University of California Berkeley, Berkeley, CA 94720-7450, U.S.A.

S. Slassi-Sennou
Space Sciences Laboratory, University of California Berkeley, Berkeley, CA 94720-7450, U.S.A.

C. Cork
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA 94720, U.S.A.

D. Clark
NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD 20771, U.S.A.

D. Amato
NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD 20771, U.S.A.

L. Orwig
NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD 20771, U.S.A.

R. Boyle
NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD 20771, U.S.A.

I.S. Banks
NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD 20771, U.S.A.

K. Shirey
NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD 20771, U.S.A.

A.K. Tolbert
NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD 20771, U.S.A. ETHZ, Zürich CH-8092, Switzerland

D. Zarro
NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD 20771, U.S.A. L-3 Communications, New York, NY 10016, U.S.A.

F. Snow
NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD 20771, U.S.A.

K. Thomsen
Paul Scherrer Institut (PSI), CH-5232 Villigen PSI, Switzerland

R. Henneck
Paul Scherrer Institut (PSI), CH-5232 Villigen PSI, Switzerland

A. Mchedlishvili
Paul Scherrer Institut (PSI), CH-5232 Villigen PSI, Switzerland

P. Ming
Paul Scherrer Institut (PSI), CH-5232 Villigen PSI, Switzerland

M. Fivian
Space Sciences Laboratory, University of California Berkeley, Berkeley, CA 94720-7450, U.S.A. Previously PSI

John Jordan
Spectrum Astro, Gilbert, AZ 85233, U.S.A.

Richard Wanner
Spectrum Astro, Gilbert, AZ 85233, U.S.A.

Jerry Crubb
Spectrum Astro, Gilbert, AZ 85233, U.S.A.

J. Preble
Spectrum Astro, Gilbert, AZ 85233, U.S.A. SpaceWorks Inc., Carefree, AZ 85377-2014, U.S.A.

M. Matranga
Spectrum Astro, Gilbert, AZ 85233, U.S.A. The Charles Stark Draper Laboratory Inc., Cambridge, MA 02139-3563, U.S.A.

A. Benz
ETHZ, Zürich CH-8092, Switzerland

H. Hudson
Space Sciences Laboratory, University of California Berkeley, Berkeley, CA 94720-7450, U.S.A.

R.C. Canfield
Montana State University, Bozeman, MT 59717, U.S.A.

G.D. Holman
NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD 20771, U.S.A.

C. Crannell
NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD 20771, U.S.A.

T. Kosugi
ISAS, Sagamihara City, Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan

A.G. Emslie
University of Alabama in Huntsville, Huntsville, AL 35899, U.S.A.

N. Vilmer
Observatoire de Paris-Meudon, France

J.C. Brown
University of Glasgow, Glasgow G128QW, Scotland, U.K.

C. Johns-Krull
Rice University, Houston, TX 77005, U.S.A.

M. Aschwanden
Lockheed-Martin, Palo Alto, CA 94304, U.S.A.

T. Metcalf
Lockheed-Martin, Palo Alto, CA 94304, U.S.A.

A. Conway
The Open University, Milton Keynes MK7 6AA, U.K.

Abstract

RHESSI is the sixth in the NASA line of Small Explorer (SMEX) missions and the first managed in the Principal Investigator mode, where the PI is responsible for all aspects of the mission except the launch vehicle. RHESSI is designed to investigate particle acceleration and energy release in solar flares, through imaging and spectroscopy of hard X-ray/gamma-ray continua emitted by energetic electrons, and of gamma-ray lines produced by energetic ions. The single instrument consists of an imager, made up of nine bi-grid rotating modulation collimators (RMCs), in front of a spectrometer with nine cryogenically-cooled germanium detectors (GeDs), one behind each RMC. It provides the first high-resolution hard X-ray imaging spectroscopy, the first high-resolution gamma-ray line spectroscopy, and the first imaging above 100 keV including the first imaging of gamma-ray lines. The spatial resolution is as fine as ~ 2.3 arc sec with a full-Sun ([gsim] 1°) field of view, and the spectral resolution is ~ 1–10 keV FWHM over the energy range from soft X-rays (3 keV) to gamma-rays (17 MeV). An automated shutter system allows a wide dynamic range (>107) of flare intensities to be handled without instrument saturation. Data for every photon is stored in a solid-state memory and telemetered to the ground, thus allowing for versatile data analysis keyed to specific science objectives. The spin-stabilized (~ 15 rpm) spacecraft is Sun-pointing to within ~ 0.2° and operates autonomously. RHESSI was launched on 5 February 2002, into a nearly circular, 38° inclination, 600-km altitude orbit and began observations a week later. The mission is operated from Berkeley using a dedicated 11-m antenna for telemetry reception and command uplinks. All data and analysis software are made freely and immediately available to the scientific community.

Article ID: 5108114