MiSolFA

The Micro Solar-Flare Apparatus


X-ray telescope complementing STIX on Solar Orbiter
to generate 3-D observations of solar flares

ROLE OF THE INSTITUTE FOR DATA SCIENCE


> Mission design

> Instrument design

Project lead at I4DS: Säm Krucker

Partners: Cosylab GmbH, MicroWorks GmbH, PSI, CEA Saclay, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center

Funding: Swiss National Science Foundation

Duration: 2015-2020


Keywords: solar physics, cubesat, X-ray imaging, Solar Orbiter

SUMMARY

MiSolFA is a compact X-ray imaging spectrometer designed to be flown in a near-Earth orbit. The project stretches diffraction grating technology to make a cubesat capable of contributing greatly to high-energy observations of solar flares. The instrument on board is an miniaturized version of the STIX instrument on Solar Orbiter. It will be co-calibrated with STIX for full compatibility. By enabling  imaging of solar flares from different viewing angles, the low-cost mission will allow to better exploit data from the Solar Orbiter mission.

PEOPLE @I4DS WHO WORK ON MiSolFA

Dr. Diego Casadei

Principal Investigator at I4DS until 2018

Prof. Dr. Säm Krucker

Solar Physicist

Erica Lastufka

PhD Student

OPEN RESOURCES AND RESULTS

IMAGES

MiSolFA is an X-ray imaging spectrometer on a micro satellite designed to observe solar flares.