Welcome to the NASA solar Polarization and Directivity X-Ray Experiment (PADRE) mission software repository. PADRE is a small satellite mission whose purpose is to study particle acceleration during solar flares. The solar PolArization and Directivity X-Ray Experiment (PADRE) is a 12U small satellite observatory that will observe the Sun in hard X-ray from low earth orbit. PADRE will investigate particle acceleration processes that occur in large solar flares with two unique and complementary approaches
- by observing the polarization of the x-ray emission and
- by coordinating with Solar Orbiter/STIX to make the first two point measurements of x-rays and to determine their directivity.
PADRE hosts two instruments:
- SHARP (solar HARd x-ray Polarimeter) led by the Space Sciences Lab at UC Berkeley (software, docs)
- Measuring Directivity to Determine Electron Anisotropy (MeDDEA) led by the Heliophysics Division of the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (software, docs)
PADRE launched successfully on June 23rd, 2025. First light is expected around August 2025.
Data can be found at https://umbra.nascom.nasa.gov/padre/.
We also maintain a MeDDEA Flare list.
To see the latest quicklook data, access our grafana dashboard.
This project would like to acknowledge the following projects
