Hinode Satellite

About the X-Ray Telescope (XRT)

Hinode

Hinode is a joint mission involving the space agencies of Japan, the United States, Europe, and the United Kingdom. It is depicted in the illustration shown above. The spacecraft is equipped with three instruments: the Solar Optical Telescope (SOT), the Extreme Ultraviolet Imaging Spectrometer (EIS), and the X-Ray Telescope (XRT). These instruments are designed to provide multi-wavelength data from the photosphere to the upper corona. The solar spacecraft spacecraft was launched at 6:36 a.m on September 23, 2006 (Japan Standard Time) and placed into a polar, sun-synchronous orbit, enabling continuous observations of the Sun. For further information, visit NASA’s Hinode space mission to the Sun.

The X-Ray Telescope

The X-Ray Telescope (XRT) is an instrument onboard the Hinode spacecraft. With its remarkable capabilities, the XRT provides high-resolution images of the solar corona’s hottest material, ranging from 1,000,000 to 10,000,000 Kelvin. Visit the official xrt-cfa-harvard website for mission overview information about the XRT.

Tip

Visit the XRT Picture of the Week and the Hinode-XRT YouTube page for captivating visual content showcasing the XRT’s solar observations.

SolarSoft XRT Analysis Guide

The SolarSoft XRT Analysis Guide is a comprehensive resource for analysis of XRT data. It includes both an Instrument Guide and an overview of the X-Ray telescope’s hardware components. The XRT software was originally created in Interactive Data Language (IDL). IDL is a software programming language used to analyze and create meaningful information from numerical data.

Note

Please note that the SolarSoft XRT Analysis Guide does not serve as a guide for using XRTpy. It focuses solely on the analysis of XRT data using the IDL software.