Initial operations of the Soft X-ray Imager onboard XRISM

TL;DR

This paper reports on the initial operational setup, verification, and optimization of the Soft X-ray Imager onboard the XRISM satellite, including system stability, observation procedures, and lessons learned during the first month of operation.

Contribution

It provides a detailed account of the initial operations, procedures, and challenges faced in deploying the SXI instrument on XRISM, which is novel for this type of space-based X-ray imaging system.

Findings

Successful cooling and stabilization of CCDs at -110°C

Verification of observation procedures and system stability

Identification and resolution of initial operational issues

Abstract

XRISM (X-Ray Imaging and Spectroscopy Mission) is an astronomical satellite with the capability of high-resolution spectroscopy with the X-ray microcalorimeter, Resolve, and wide field-of-view imaging with the CCD camera, Xtend. Xtend consists of the mirror assembly (XMA: X-ray Mirror Assembly) and detector (SXI: Soft X-ray Imager). The SXI is composed of CCDs, analog and digital electronics, and a mechanical cooler. After the successful launch on September 6th, 2023 (UT) and subsequent critical operations, the mission instruments were turned on and set up. The CCDs have been kept at the designed operating temperature of $-110^\circ$C after the electronics and cooling system were successfully set up. During the initial operation phase, which continued for more than a month after the critical operations, we verified the observation procedure, stability of the cooling system, all the observation options with different imaging areas and/or timing resolutions, and time-tagged and automated operations including those for South Atlantic Anomaly passages. We optimized the operation procedure and observation parameters including the cooler settings, imaging areas for the small window modes, and event selection algorithm. We summarize our policy and procedure of the initial operations for the SXI. We also report on a couple of issues we faced during the initial operations and lessons learned from them.