SOLAR BRAGG SPECTROMETRY - NEW OPPORTUNITIES WITH MICRO-SATELLITES

Solar X-ray spectra are am unique source of information crucial to explore the physics of the solar coronal plasma. Spectrometry allows determining basic plasma parameters, and thus to investigate coronal-heating mechanisms, physics of flares and space weather.

In the past, large satellites were using the Brag spectrometers to observe the X-ray spectra. The best spectra were obtained from the XRP instrument on board Solar Maximum Mission. Our team from Polish Space Research Centre used the experience of XRP to develop two follow-on Bragg spectrometers, RESIK and DIOGENESS, which successfully observed the solar spectra in 2001. Currently, we are working on two novel spectrometers: SolpeX and ChemiX for International Space Station and Interhelioprobe respectively. However the future of solar X-ray spectroscopy lays in using micro-satellites to carry the instruments. In my presentation, a description of CubeSats designed to observe the X-ray spectra of the Sun will be given.