Solar Flare Hard X-ray Polarimetry with the CUbesat Solar Polarimeter (CUSP) mission
The CUbesat Solar Polarimeter (CUSP) project is a CubeSat mission planned for a launch in low-Earth orbit and aimed to measure the linear polarization of solar flares in the hard X-ray band by means of a Compton scattering polarimeter. CUSP will allow us to study the magnetic reconnection and particle acceleration in the flaring magnetic structures of our star. CUSP is a project in the framework of the Alcor Program of the Italian Space Agency aimed at developing new CubeSat missions. It is undergoing a 12-month Phase B that started in December 2024. The Compton polarimeter on board CUSP is composed of two acquisition chains based on plastic scintillators read out by Multi-Anode PhotoMultiplier Tubes for the scatterer part and GAGG crystals coupled to Avalanche PhotoDiodes for the absorbers. An event coincident between the two readout schemes will lead to a measurement of the incoming X-ray's azimuthal scattering angle, linked to the polarization of the solar flare in a statistical manner. The current status of the CUSP mission design, mission analysis, and payload scientific performance will be reported. The latter will be discussed based on preliminary laboratory results obtained in parallel with Geant4 simulations.
Authors
- Abhay Kumar (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5298-8303)
- Simone Di Filippo (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1949-6010)
- R. Campana (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4794-5453)
- Pasqualino Loffredo (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4657-1119)
- Emanuele Scalise (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3058-9720)
- Enrico Silva (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8633-4295)
- Alessandro Turchi (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3958-5512)
- Paolo Tortora (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5234-601X)
- G. De Cesare (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0869-7183)
- P. Soffitta (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7781-4104)
- Giovanni Cucinella
- Giuseppe Di Persio (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1446-3690)
- E. Del Monte (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3013-6334)
- Dario Modenini (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1517-3938)
- P. Romano (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7066-6674)
- V. Vagelli (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4495-9331)
- М. Мерге (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2018-4236)
- Andrea Alimenti (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4459-6147)
- Pierluigi Fanelli (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5095-4107)
- Daniele Brienza
- Andrea Curatolo (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4585-0458)
- Fabio Muleri (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3331-3794)
- Alessandro Zambardi
- Mauro Centrone (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8745-2514)
- Andrea Del Re
- Nicolas De Angelis (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2498-0213)
- Ilaria Baffo (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8082-4349)
- Massimo Perelli
- I. Donnarumma (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4700-4549)
- Paolo Leonetti
- Emanuele Zaccagnino
- Giovanni Lombardi (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4772-3559)
- Andrea Negri (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2340-8298)
- Enrico Costa
- Sergio Di Cosimo
- G. Minervini
- Sergio Fabiani
- A. Rubini
- Giulia De Iulis
- Alice Ponti
- Valerio Campamaggiore
- Nicolas Gagliardi
- Daniele Pecorella
- Costantino Zazza
- Alessandro Lacerenza
- Davide Albanesi
Publication Details
- Published
- 2025-09-23
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.22323/1.501.0622
- Primary Topic
- Solar and Space Plasma Dynamics
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.00