On 2006 May 24 NOAA's Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES) 13 satellite was launched with the
next generation Solar X-ray Imager (SXI) aboard. This instrument represents a significant step forward in performance
over the previous SXI flown on GOES-12, even before that instrument suffered serious degradation. Like the previous
instrument, the new instrument uses a grazing incidence optical design, but with a new detector and other improvements,
it has about 10 times the sensitivity, twice the spatial resolution, and greatly reduced wide-angle scattering compared to
the GOES-12 SXI. The GOES-13 SXI completed its 6 month checkout period in December 2006. Performance tests
included dark current, flat-field, spatial response, scattered light, pointing stability and jitter. We present initial analyses
and results of these tests as well as comparisons to ground test results. In addition, GOES-13 solar observations are
compared to solar observations by other instruments. When it enters operations, the GOES-13 SXI will provide
continuous, real-time observations of the X-ray Sun at 1-minute cadence.
NOAA's Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellites (GOES) include instruments focused on both terrestrial
weather patterns as well as solar activity. These solar X-ray measurements enable the NWS Space Environment Center
to perform operational specification and to forecast Space Weather phenomenon. The disk-integrated solar X-ray flux
has been recorded for more than three decades by the GOES X-ray Sensor (XRS). GOES-12 Solar X-ray Imager (SXI)
has provided real-time images of the Sun and lower corona since 2003. In October 2004, a sounding rocket underflight
was undertaken with the Avalanche X-ray Spectrometer (AXS) to provide reference or "solar truth" spectra and these
data are being used to provide absolute calibration for the XRS and SXI instruments. We present a report on the progress
of this effort, including results of the data reduction and analysis for the XRS, SXI and AXS. This calibration effort will
increase our understanding of SXI and XRS instrument response functions and will improve the accuracy of space
weather forecasting.
NOAA's Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellites (GOES) monitor the solar X-ray activity that enable the NWS Space Environment Center to perform operational specification and forecast of the space environment. The disk-integrated solar X-ray flux has been recorded for more than two decades by the GOES X-ray Sensor (XRS). Since 2003, GOES Solar X-ray Imager (SXI) has provided real-time images of the Sun and lower corona. On 2004 October 15, a sounding rocket launched from White Sands Missile Range marked an important milestone in the first-ever attempt at on-orbit response calibration of GOES X-ray instrumentation. This paper provides an overview of this effort, which includes participation of NOAA, NASA, University of Alaska, and University of Colorado. In addition, results of initial data reduction and analysis for the XRS, SXI, and the sounding rocket are presented.
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