A Brief Introduction to STIX Data Center

Solar Orbiter is a Sun orbiting satellite developed by ESA for near observations of the Sun. It was launched in 2020. STIX is an X-ray camera onboard the spacecraft. It is used to take images and measure energy spectra of X-rays emitted from solar flares, which can provide important information to help us understand how and where solar flares are formed. STIX instrument was developed in Switzerland.

STIX data center is an automated data processing, management and visualization platform developed by STIX team in order to process, archive STIX telemetry data, support the operations of the instrument and reach activities with STIX data.

It received STIX telemetry data from ESA, and then process the data to different data produce levels automatically. Analysis reports, instrument health status, and analysis results are displayed using responsive web GUIs. The whole system has been deployed on a cloud server at FHNW.

Thanks to its modular design and compatibility with ESA’s mission control system - SCOS2000, the system can be easily adapted for other space missions. After some minor modifications, it can also be ported to other use cases, such as as automated data processing platforms for large scientific facilities, the Internet of Things (IoT), or distributed sensors.