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R. P. Lin (University of California, Berkeley), RHESSI Team
The RHESSI mission investigates particle acceleration and energy release in solar flares, through imaging and spectroscopy of hard X-ray/gamma-ray continuum and gamma-ray lines emitted by energetic electrons and ions, respectively. Imaging is achieved with nine bi-grid rotating modulation collimators, each with a cooled segmented germanium detector to cover from 3 keV to 17 MeV. RHESSI provides the first imaging spectroscopy in hard X-rays with ~2 arcsec angular resolution, time resolution to tens of ms, and ~1 keV energy resolution; the first gamma-ray line spectroscopy with ~2-5 keV energy resolution; and the first gamma-ray line and continuum imaging with ~36-arcsecond angular resolution. The Sun-pointed spin-stabilized RHESSI spacecraft was successfuly launched on 5 February 2002 into a 600 km altitude, 38 degree inclination orbit, and began observations a week later. All the data and the analysis software have been made available to the scientific community. I will describe the unique capabilities of RHESSI and present some initial results from the first few months of operation.
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Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, 34
© 2002. The American Astronomical Soceity.