CubIXSS: The CubeSat Imaging X-ray Solar Spectrometer

How the corona is heated to tens of megakelvin (MK) in solar flares and quiescent (non-flaring) active regions is still poorly understood. Elemental abundances are a unique diagnostic of how mass and energy flow into and within the corona. Spectral signatures of key trace ion species reveal the chromospheric or coronal origins of hot plasma, constraining heating locations and mechanisms. However, many prior studies of abundances have yielded conflicting results, largely because they relied on instruments with limited, differing temperature and composition sensitivities. The CubeSat Imaging X-ray Solar Spectrometer (CubIXSS, pronounced “cubics”) directly addresses these longstanding inconsistencies. CubIXSS bridges a crucial, decades-long gap in ~0.25–3 keV soft X-ray (SXR) spectroscopic observations to measure many key low- and high-FIP ion species across the entire coronal temperature range from ~1 to >30 MK simultaneously. CubIXSS is motivated by a compelling overarching science question: What are the origins of hot plasma in solar flares and active regions? CubIXSS builds on heritage from pathfinder programs such as MinXSS-1 and the SDO/EVE sounding rockets to provide unprecedented SXR spectroscopy of hot coronal emissions with improved spectral coverage and dynamic range. CubIXSS approaches this science question through one highly targeted measurement objective (MO) and one science-motivated technology demonstration objective (TO): MO1: How do elemental abundances vary within and across solar flares? CubIXSS measurements of coronal composition across a wide temperature range will test chromospheric evaporation and direct coronal heating models of hot plasma formation in solar flares over timescales as short as a few seconds, sensitive to both gradual and impulsive heating scenarios. TO1: How do elemental abundances vary within and across active regions? AR measurements require spatial resolution to quantify the contributions of individual ARs to the total SXR spectrum. CubIXSS demonstrates and further develops new, robust techniques to analyze dispersed spectral images, enabling a new class of high-sensitivity spatiospectral X-ray instruments. CubIXSS combines spatially integrated SXR spectrometers with an innovative SXR slitless spectrograph in a compact, inexpensive, high-TRL 6U spacecraft. The Multi-Order X-ray Spectral Imager (MOXSI) provides both spectrally dispersed and broadband multi-filter SXR images simultaneously, to observe solar flares and individual active regions. The Small Assembly for Solar Spectroscopy (SASS) provides high-sensitivity SXR spectra integrated over the entire solar disk, with extended spectral coverage and dynamic range. Prototypes flown on sounding rockets, a long-duration balloon, and the MinXSS-1 CubeSat proved the instrument concepts and utility of these measurements. CubIXSS’s groundbreaking observations and 12-month nominal mission are well timed for overlap with Parker Solar Probe, Solar Orbiter, PUNCH, GOES/SUVI, and the extended missions of SDO, Hinode, IRIS, and STEREO, for comprehensive context and complementary measurements. CubIXSS embraces the H-FORT emphasis on pioneering, high-impact mission concepts and is a pathfinder for the next generation of Explorer-class missions with improved spatial and spectral resolution and sensitivity for SXR imaging spectroscopy. CubIXSS is an international collaboration between many institutions with extensive histories of successful space programs. This wealth of expertise ensures mission and science success. CubIXSS directly addresses the H-FORT solicitation of and definitions for “high risk, high impact” proposals. It directly addressed NASA SMD’s 2014 Science Plan, Science Goal 1 and indirectly addresses Science Goal 2. The 2013 Heliophysics Decadal Survey urges the expansion of CubeSat missions. We also directly address Decadal goal 4, specifically through sub-goal SHP-2.

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