XRT
(SAO, NASA, JAXA, NAOJ)

Hinode (was Solar-B) was launched at 6:36 a.m. on September 23, 2006 (Japan Standard Time).

2012-February-9
Breaking News! XRT-CO Antonia Savcheva (BU) has passed the oral part of her PhD comprehensive exams.
We expect her thesis to be done in about a year from now. Congratulations from the Hinode / XRT Team, Antonia!

2012-February-7
XRT makes it to NASA Image of the Day!: Hinode/XRT caught a large flare on the limb of the Sun, and one of our images was featured as the NASA Image of the Day for 2012-February-7.

2012-February-6
Monthly Science Highlights:
Each month we will highlight three recent XRT science papers. A summary of the papers is given HERE . The papers themselves are ADS-linked below:

  1. "Thermal Properties of a Solar Coronal Cavity Observed with the X-Ray Telescope on Hinode" Reeves et. al 2012, ApJ, 746, 146

  2. "Clear Detection of Chromospheric Evaporation Upflows with High Spatial/Temporal Resolution by Hinode XRT" Nitta et. al 2011, Solar Phys., 276, 183

  3. "Lateral Offset of the Coronal Mass Ejections from the X-flare of 2006 December 13 and Its Two Precursor Eruptions" Sterling et. al 2011, ApJ, 743, 63

2012-January-19
Conference Announcement: The Hinode 6th Science Meeting will be held in St. Andrews, Scotland, on August 13--17, 2012. (We will announce a meeting website when one becomes available.)

2012-January-18
New XPOW: Can you spot Comet Lovejoy?

2011-December-9
Operational announcement: Regarding the MDP bit-error of 2011-December-7:
The MCU reset related to the MDP 2-bit error recovery was successfully performed. XRT can resume normal observations on Saturday evening (JST).

2011-December-7
Operational announcement: A bit error has been detected in the MDP (Main Data Processor of the spacecraft). This happens occasionally, and the recovery is routine. However, there won't be any observations during the Thursday timeline period. Observations are expected to resume on Saturday evening (JST).

2011-December-2
New XPOW: The Partial Solar Eclipse of 2011/11/25

See the XRT News page for older XRT news items.

The Hinode X-Ray Telescope (XRT) is a high-resolution grazing-incidence telescope, which is a successor to the highly successful Yohkoh Soft X-Ray Telescope (SXT). A primary purpose of the Hinode XRT is to observe the generation, transport, and emergence of solar magnetic fields, as well as the ultimate dissipation of magnetic energy in forms such as flares and pico-flares, coronal heating, and coronal mass ejections. The XRT aboard Hinode observes the dissipation part of the life-cycle story of solar magnetic fields. High-resolution soft X-ray images reveal magnetic field configuration and its evolution, allowing us to observe the energy buildup, storage and release process in the corona for any transient event. One of the unique features of XRT is its wide temperature coverage to see all the coronal features that are not seen with any normal incidence telescope.

The XRT consists of the X-ray and visible light optics, focal plane mechanisms (filters and shutter), and the 2k x 2k CCD camera. The Mission Data Processor (MDP) also plays a vital role for XRT.

The XRT was designed and developed by the Japan-US collaboration between Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory (SAO), NASA MSFC, JAXA, and NAOJ. The XRT telescope was tested and calibrated at the XRCF at MSFC, and the CCD camera was tested and calibrated in X-rays at the ATC of the NAOJ with JAXA.

If XRT data is used in a published article or report, please give a proper Acknowledgement:

"Hinode is a Japanese mission developed and launched by ISAS/JAXA, with NAOJ as domestic partner and NASA and STFC (UK) as international partners. It is operated by these agencies in co-operation with ESA and the NSC (Norway)."

If an XRT image is displayed in a popular article, on a website, et cetera, then please acknowledge the contributing institutions:

"(SAO, NASA, JAXA, NAOJ)"

You may find a list of the XRT instrument papers and other important references that should be considered for inclusion in your XRT science paper HERE.

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