{
  "abstract": "X-ray emission in solar flares is produced by both multi-thermal plasma and accelerated electrons. Classical imaging approaches reconstruct X-ray intensity maps which contain contributions from multiple spectral components (e.g., hot, superhot, and non-thermal), and do not allow retrieving the morphology of the different components separately. We introduce a novel imaging technique, called \"Count-based spectral Component Imaging (CCI)\", to jointly reconstruct spatially resolved emission measure maps of the thermal components, and the electron flux distribution of the non-thermal component from data provided by the Spectrometer/Telescope for Imaging X-rays (STIX) aboard Solar Orbiter. We formulate a linear model linking the Differential Emission Measure (DEM), approximated by two thermal components, and the non-thermal electron flux to the observed counts. The resulting inverse problem is solved with the Richardson-Lucy algorithm. We apply CCI to STIX observations of SOL2024-10-01T22 and compare it with the previously developed Spectral Component Imaging (SCI) method, as well as classical imaging approaches. The reconstructed thermal and non-thermal components show good agreement with those obtained using SCI. This proof-of-concept study shows that CCI obtains results consistent with SCI but with fewer inputs. In contrast with SCI, CCI can also be applied to hard X-ray focusing optics imaging.",
  "abstract_shown": true,
  "affiliations": [],
  "article_type": null,
  "arxiv": "2609.17178",
  "author_total": 6,
  "authors": [
    {
      "name": "Alessia Guidetti"
    },
    {
      "name": "Muriel Zoë Stiefel"
    },
    {
      "name": "Paolo Massa"
    },
    {
      "name": "Anna Maria Massone"
    },
    {
      "name": "Michele Piana"
    },
    {
      "name": "Säm Krucker"
    }
  ],
  "bibtex": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/bxp1cc233sxkm.bib",
  "cited_by": 0,
  "doi": "10.48550/arxiv.2609.17178",
  "fulltext_url": null,
  "id": "bxp1cc233sxkm",
  "issns": [],
  "landing_url": "https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.17178",
  "language": null,
  "licence": "LicenseRef-arXiv-nonexclusive-1.0",
  "licence_label": "arXiv licence",
  "licence_source": "article",
  "licence_url": "http://arxiv.org/licenses/nonexclusive-distrib/1.0/",
  "metadata_licence": "CC0-1.0",
  "native_subjects": [
    [
      "arxiv",
      "astro-ph.IM"
    ],
    [
      "arxiv",
      "astro-ph.SR"
    ],
    [
      "openalex",
      "3103|Solar and Space Plasma Dynamics"
    ]
  ],
  "openalex": "W7213419134",
  "pdf_url": "https://arxiv.org/pdf/2609.17178",
  "pmcid": null,
  "pmid": null,
  "published": "2026-09-15",
  "publisher": null,
  "ris": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/bxp1cc233sxkm.ris",
  "sources": [
    {
      "first_seen": "2026-10-30T12:21:41Z",
      "native_id": "2609.17178",
      "source": "arxiv",
      "url": "https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.17178"
    }
  ],
  "subjects": [
    {
      "field": "astronomy",
      "origin": "arxiv:astro-ph.IM",
      "subfield": "instrumentation-methods"
    },
    {
      "field": "astronomy",
      "origin": "arxiv:astro-ph.SR",
      "subfield": "stellar"
    }
  ],
  "title": "Count-based spectral component imaging (CCI) of solar flares in X-rays",
  "title_text": "Count-based spectral component imaging (CCI) of solar flares in X-rays",
  "type": "preprint",
  "updated_at": "2026-10-30T12:21:41Z",
  "url": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/bxp1cc233sxkm",
  "venue": "arXiv",
  "versions": []
}