Solar flares observed simultaneously with SphinX, GOES and RHESSI

Abstract

AbstractIn February 2009, during recent deepest solar minimum, Polish Solar Photometer in X-rays (SphinX) begun observations of the Sun in the energy range of 1.2–15 keV. SphinX was almost 100 times more sensitive than GOES X-ray Sensors. The silicon PIN diode detectors used in the experiment were carefully calibrated on the ground using Synchrotron Radiation Source BESSY II. The SphinX energy range overlaps with the Ramaty High Energy Solar Spectroscopic Imager (RHESSI) energy range. The instrument provided us with observations of hundreds of very small flares and X-ray brightenings. We have chosen a group of solar flares observed simultaneously with GOES, SphinX and RHESSI and performed spectroscopic analysis of observations wherever possible. The analysis of thermal part of the spectra showed that SphinX is a very sensitive complementary observatory for RHESSI and GOES.