Solar wind magnetosphere ionosphere link explorer (SMILE) scientific satellite is dedicated to observe solar wind-magnetosphere coupling. The key payload, soft X-ray imager (SXI), is designed to map the location, shape, and motion of dayside magnetospheric boundaries by Angel-type lobster-eye optical system. Contrast to traditional Wolter-type X-ray telescope with very narrow field-of-view, the lobster-eye-type optics has a unique capability of providing wide field of view for panoramic imaging with moderate spatial resolution in soft X-ray band. Since the lobster-eye optics focus X-ray by reflecting of the inner walls of the micro-channel array shaped in spherical surface, traditional optical design tools can't well match to the requirements of simulation for SXI. In this paper, a 3D Angel-type lobster-eye model is designed for simulation of lobster-eye optics and its capability is demonstrated for the applying scenarios including the imaging of point light source, surface light source with uniform and non-uniform intensity distribution. The simulation results are well consistent with those of theoretical estimate.
We propose to use the Moon as a platform to obtain a global view of Earth's magnetosphere by a Lunar-based Soft X-ray Imager (LSXI). LSXI is a wide field-of-view Soft X-ray telescope, which can obtain X-ray images of Earth's magnetosphere based on the solar wind charge exchange (SWCX) X-ray emission. Global perspective is crucial to understand the overall interaction of the solar wind with magnetosphere. LSXI is capable of continuously monitoring the evolution of geospace conditions under the impact of the solar wind by simultaneous observation of the bow shock, magnetosheath, magnetopause and cusps for the first time. This proposal is answering the call for the Chinese Lunar Exploration Program Phase IV.
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