A long-duration balloon payload for hard X-ray and gamma-ray observations of the sun

✍ Scribed by R. P. Lin; D. W. Curtis; J. H. Primbsch; P. R. Harvey; W. K. Levedahl; D. M. Smith; R. M. Pelling; F. Duttweiler; K. Hurley

• Publisher: Springer
• Year: 1987
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 635 KB
• Volume: 113
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0038-0938
• DOI: 10.1007/bf00147720

✦ Synopsis

We describe a balloon payload designed to study the processes of energy release, particle acceleration, and heating of the active corona, in hard X-ray microflares and normal flares. An array of liquid nitrogen-cooled germanium detectors together with large area phoswich scintillation detectors provide the highest sensitivity (~500 cm 2) and energy resolution (<0.7 keV) ever achieved for solar hard X-ray (~15-600 keV) measurements. These detectors were flown in February 1987 from Australia on a long duration RAdiation _C_O_ntrolled balloON (RACOON) flight (LDBF) which provided 12 days of observations before cutdown in Brazil. The payload includes solar cells for power, pointing and navigation sensors, a microprocessor controlled data system with VCR tape storage, and transmitters for GOES and ARGOS spacecraft. This successful flight illustrates the potential of LDBF's for solar flare studies.