X-ray Calibration of the GOES-N/O Solar X-ray Imagers

摘要

The X-ray calibration of the GOES Solar X-ray Imagers (SXI) was accomplished at the component level and at the instrument level. The CCD and thin film filters were characterized in the facilities at the Lockheed Martin Solar and Astrophysics Laboratory. The grazing incidence telescope mirrors and the completed instruments were calibrated at the X-ray Calibration Facility (XRCF) at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center. The XRCF consists of an X-ray source at one end of a 518 m long evacuated tube and a large vacuum chamber at the opposite end. The X-ray source has a variety of interchangeable anodes and filters to provide filtered characteristic K- and L-shell line emission in the range from 0.109 to 8.6 keV. The absolute Photometric calibration of the SXI telescopes is very important for analysis and interpretation of their data, and to monitor the long-term solar variations at X-ray wavelengths. This paper describes the results of these calibrations.