The integrating miniature piggyback for impulsive solar hard x-rays (IMPISH): a low-cost spectrometer for the GRIPS-2 balloon campaign
Year: 2025
Type: conference-paper
Abstract: The Integrating Miniature Piggyback for Impulsive Solar Hard X-rays (IMPISH) is a piggyback mission originally designed for the second flight of the Gamma-Ray Imager/Polarimeter for Solar flares (GRIPS-2) Antarctic balloon. IMPISH will take measurements of collimated, full-Sun X-ray spectra with the goal of detecting subsecond variations (order of tens of milliseconds) of nonthermal X-ray emission during the impulsive phase of large solar flares to probe particle acceleration mechanisms driven by magnetic reconnection. The IMPISH detector system, made up of four identical detectors totaling 64 cm2 effective area, is capable of measuring from ∼10 keV to over 200 keV through the use of silicon photomultipliers (SiPMs) and LYSO scintillators. At the stratospheric altitude of GRIPS-2, the effective lower energy limit is ∼20 keV to 30 keV. The geometry of the LYSO crystal has been optimized to balance the light collection efficiency with the effective area required for stratospheric X-ray measurements. Development of the IMPISH detectors has introduced a path for a low-cost solution to fast solar X-ray measurements across a large energy range utilizing commercially available components. The payload has a 3U form factor and has been designed so that both the electronics and detectors may be easily adaptable for space-based missions.
DOI: 10.1117/12.3064695
Authors: Reed B. Masek, William Setterberg, Dorcas Oseni, Lestat Clemmer, Lindsay Glesener, Philip Williams, John Sample, Amir Caspi, Demoz Gebre-Egziabher, Pascal Saint-Hilaire, Albert Shih, David Smith
Language: English
Subfield: Radiation
Field: Physics and Astronomy
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W4413123399