The Spectrometer Telescope for Imaging X-rays (STIX) on Solar Orbiter is a hard X-ray imaging spectrometer covering the energy range from 4 to 150 keV. STIX observes hard X-ray bremsstrahlung emissions from solar flares and therefore provides diagnostics of the hottest ('10 MK) flare plasma while quantifying the location, spectrum, and energy content of flare-accelerated nonthermal electrons.
pystixsim is a simulator written in Python for the STIX imager that can simulate observed count patterns for sources of different source shapes. In the simulator, each grid window is represented by a set of polygons. When simulating a point source at a particular location, the polygons are projected onto the detector plane, allowing for the determination of the illuminated area on each pixel using boolean operations with the projected polygons.
For non-point X-ray sources, patterns can be synthesized by weighting the patterns of point sources at different locations.
https://github.com/drhlxiao/pystixsim/blob/main/examples/STIX_pattern_simulator.ipynb
Please contact me (hualin.xiao(at)fhnw.ch) if you would like to use it.
[1] Xiao, H. (2024). pystixsim: an imaging simulator for the X-ray Imager/Telescope onboard Solar Orbiter STIX (v1.0). Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.10973277
The simulator has been used for the following work:
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Image classification and reconstruction using machine learning
See the conference talk: https://meetingorganizer.copernicus.org/EGU22/EGU22-6371.html
https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1pHYuUKThdrTX-ZZFeHY_D0FCeF0csCIa4DpE0NtzkIU/edit?usp=sharing -
https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/16zWLs8cxUZdWyrgQD1FjuyoMptZYDzfGzjJaMdy24KQ/edit?usp=sharing