EXACT Spacecraft

Study hard x-ray (HXR) emissions from solar flare activity.

Study hard x-ray (HXR) emissions from solar flare activity. Produce an energy spectrum to show the timescales of electrons accelerated by flares.

Primary focus is the monitoring of X-ray emission from these solar flares. This emission, produced by high energy electrons colliding with ions, allows physicists to probe and understand the mechanisms energizing particles within solar flares. As particles receive 10% - 50% of the energy released in flares, understanding the processes involved is vital to understanding the energetics of the flares themselves.

In particular, EXACT will be operating with phenomenal time-resolution (<25ms), allowing the resolving of small-timescale (<1s) fluctuations in the X-ray flux. These fluctuation can then be correlated back to the acceleration timescales of the particles themselves, before being compared to the characteristic timescales of particle acceleration mechanisms within solar flares.