The Soft X-ray Imager (SXI) on the SMILE Mission

• Published in: Earth and planetary physics Vol. 8; no. 1; pp. 5 - 14
• Main Authors: Sembay, S., L. Alme, A., Agnolon, D., Arnold, T., Beardmore, A., Belén Balado Margeli, A., Bicknell, C., Bouldin, C., Branduardi-Raymont, G., Crawford, T., P. Breuer, J., Buggey, T., Butcher, G., Canchal, R., A. Carter, J., Cheney, A., Collado-Vega, Y., Connor, H., Eaton, N., Feldman, C., Forsyth, C., Frantzen, T., Galgóczi, G., Garcia, J., Y. Genov, G., Gordillo, C., Gröbelbauer, H-P., Guedel, M., Guo, Y., Hailey, M., Hall, D., Hampson, R., Hasiba, J., Hetherington, O., Holland, A., Hsieh, S-Y., W. J. Hubbard, M., Jeszenszky, H., Jones, M., Kennedy, T., Koch-Mehrin, K., Kögl, S., Krucker, S., D. Kuntz, K., Laky, G., Lylund, O., Martindale, A., Miguel Mas Hesse, J., Nakamura, R., Oksavik, K., Østgaard, N., Ottacher, H., Ottensamer, R., Pagani, C., Parsons, S., Patel, P., Pearson, J., Peikert, G., S. Porter, F., Pouliantis, T., H. Qureshi, B., Raab, W., Randall, G., M. Read, A., M. M. Roque, N., E. Rostad, M., Runciman, C., Sachdev, S., Samsonov, A., Soman, M., Sibeck, D., Smit, S., Søndergaard, J., Speight, R., Stavland, S., Steller, M., Sun, TianRan, Thornhill, J., Thomas, W., Ullaland, K., Walsh, B., Walton, D., Wang, C., Yang, S.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: School of Physics and Astronomy,University of Leicester,Leicester,LE1 7RH,UK%Birkeland Centre for Space Science,Department of Physics and Technology,Univ.of Bergen,N-5007 Bergen,Norway%ESTEC,European Space Agency,2201 AZ Noordwijk,Netherlands%Centre for Electronic Imaging,Open University,Milton Keynes,MK7 6AA,UK%National Institute of Aerospace Technology,Madrid,Spain%School of Physics and Astronomy,University of Leicester,Leicester,LE1 7RH,UK 2024; ESTEC,European Space Agency,2201 AZ Noordwijk,Netherlands%STM Engineering,N-5165 Laksevag,Norway%State Key Laboratory of Space Weather,National Space Science Centre,Beijing 100190,China%Center for Space Physics,Boston University,Boston,MA 02215,USA; Space Park Leicester,University of Leicester,Leicester,LE1 7RH,UK%Space Park Leicester,University of Leicester,Leicester,LE1 7RH,UK%Mullard Space Science Laboratory,University College London,Dorking,RH5 6NT,UK%Department of Theoretical Physics and Astrophysics,Masaryk University,601 77 Brno,Czech Republic%NASA/Goddard Space Flight Centre,MD 20771,USA%Space Acoustics GmbH,CH-8157 Dielsdorf,Switzerland%Institute of Physics,E?tv?s Lor'and University,1053 Budapest,Hungary%Birkeland Centre for Space Science,Department of Physics and Technology,Univ.of Bergen,N-5007 Bergen,Norway; Genov Solutions,N-5172 Loddefjord,Norway%University of Applied Sciences and Arts Northwestern Switzerland,CH-5210 Windisch,Switzerland%University of Vienna,A-1010 Vienna,Austria%Aerospace Information Research Institute,Chinese Academy of Sciences,Beijing 100045,China%John Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory,MD 20723,USA%Space Research Institute,Austrian Academy of Sciences,A-8042 Graz,Austria%Koegl Space GmbH,CH-8157 Dielsdorf,Switzerland%Centro de Astrobiologia(CAB),CSIC-INTA,Madrid,Spain%Zurich University of Applied Sciences,8400 Winterhur,Switzerland%Centre for Electronic Imaging,Open University,Milton Keynes,MK7 6AA,UK; Science Press
• Subjects: large area ccd; micropore optics; soft x-ray imaging; Soft X-ray Imaging; micropore optics; large area CCD
• ISSN: 2096-3955; 2096-3955
• DOI: 10.26464/epp2023067

The Soft X-ray Imager(SXI)is part of the scientific payload of the Solar wind Magnetosphere lonosphere Link Explorer(SMILE)mission.SMILE is a joint science mission between the European Space Agency(ESA)and the Chinese Academy of Sciences(CAS)and is due for launch in 2025.SXI is a compact X-ray telescope with a wide field-of-view(FOV)capable of encompassing large portions of Earth's magnetosphere from the vantage point of the SMILE orbit.SXI is sensitive to the soft X-rays produced by the Solar Wind Charge eXchange(SWCX)process produced when heavy ions of solar wind origin interact with neutral particles in Earth's exosphere.SWCX provides a mechanism for boundary detection within the magnetosphere,such as the position of Earth's magnetopause,because the solar wind heavy ions have a very low density in regions of closed magnetic field lines.The sensitivity of the SXI is such that it can potentially track movements of the magnetopause on timescales of a few minutes and the orbit of SMILE will enable such movements to be tracked for segments lasting many hours.SXI is led by the University of Leicester in the United Kingdom(UK)with collaborating organisations on hardware,software and science support within the UK,Europe,China and the United States.