Home Goals Instruments Data Processing Data Products Documentation Solar features can be characterized in terms of intensity and spectral content. Intensity is most often represented by emission measure, which is the square of the plasma density. Intensity is directly proportional to emission measure.
Spectral content is described by the plasma temperature.
The dynamic ranges of the two SXI instruments are plotted in blue for two exposures and filters. Clearly flares and most active regions are beyond saturation for a 1 second SXI-M exposure. The SXI maximum sensitivity is in the 1-10 MK temperature range, depending on the filter used. Although SXI is a broadband instrument, it can be used to estimate plasma temperatures and emission measure. The instrument response, consisting of the gain and effective area, is known from ground calibration and is updated during the mission.