Solar Orbiter STIX

Solar Orbiter STIX

Description

This is a service that provides access to the Solar Orbiter STIX data.

The Spectrometer Telescope for Imaging X-rays (STIX) on Solar Orbiter is a hard X-ray imaging spectrometer covering the energy range from 4 to 150 keV. STIX observes hard X-ray bremsstrahlung emissions from solar flares and therefore provides diagnostics of the hottest ('10 MK) flare plasma while quantifying the location, spectrum, and energy content of flare-accelerated nonthermal electrons.

Parameters

General

The follwoing parameters are mandatory

  • start_time str: YYYY-MM-DDThh:mm:ss.s UTC ISO start date of the search window. The date must be after January 2021, since STIX has no data before this date. The backend will start searching for flares in STIX data from this date and time on. It doesn't matter if the sun is above or below the horizon then. The default is set to 2024-08-04T01:00:00.0.
  • end_time str: YYYY-MM-DDThh:mm:ss.s UTC ISO end date of the search window. The date must be after January 2021, since STIX has no data before this date. The backend will search the STIX database for flares up to this point in time. The default is set to 2024-08-04T13:00:00.0.

The following parameters are not used.

  • RA (float), DEC (float): right ascenscion and declination have no meaning for STIX obervations
  • source_name str: Ignored and always set to "Sun"

Query parameters

There is not much to choose here. You can select for which instrument you want to get the output. Currently, there is only data available for STIX. Next, select for which energy range you want to get the lightcurves. STIX has five distinct ranges from 4-10 kev, 10-15 kev, 15-25 kev 25-50 kev and 50-84 kev. In order to find flares you should use the two ranges with lowest energy, i.e. 4-10 kev and 15-25 kev. They are most sensitive to flare generated x-ray emissions.

Output

The output is a plot of the lightcurves for the selected time range and energy levels and a list of the fits file used to generate the plot. The files are stored on a server with public access. You can use the url(s) provided to download the files and use them for further analysis.

Authors and acknowledgment

Main contributors:

From FHNW, Institute for Data Science, Switzerland:

  • Tschai Yimvuthikul
  • Andreas Wassmer

Backend:

  • Renkulab.io

Data and results presented by:

  • STIX team
  • MMODA platform