Pre-launch calibration data have been analyzed for evaluating the point spread function (PSF) of Yohkoh Soft X-ray Telescope (SXT). Especially, it is found crucial that the effect of undersampling should be treated properly. The best fit solution of the SXT PSF, which is modeled by an elliptical Moffat function, has been derived by the comparison with the ground experiment data. In order to examine the off-axis variation of the SXT PSF, we need to define in advance the location of the optical axis on the CCD. According to the previous studies, the off-axis variation of effective area (the vignetting function) may be approximated either by two non-concentric cones or by a cone with some flat distortions. There have been, however, no fully approved representations for the SXT vignetting effect. The effect of the shift of the optical axis from the geometrical center of the telescope is investigated by numerical simulation. It is revealed from our study that the full width at half maximum (FWHM) of the SXT PSF stays nearly constant within an error bound over the central area of the CCD where the solar disk is located.

The .Japanese sun observing satellite, Yohkoh, has been operational for five years and her scientific instruments are still in good condition. They have revealed ample of evidences that solar flares were triggered by magnetic reconnection, which was, for the first time, clearly indicated to take place in the solar corona. Cusp structures in soft X-rays and a new type of hard X-ray sources at the top of flaring loops have strongly supported the scenario originally proposed by C-S-H-KP. Nonthermal energy input in hard X-rays and thermal energy estimated from soft X-rays are fundamentally consistent with the interpretation of thick-target and chromospheric-evaporation models (Neupert effect). X-ray jets, another discovery of Yohkoh, were also associated with magnetic reconnection, as a result of the interaction of emerging fluxes with pre-existing coronal loops. Temperature structures of active regions, quiet sun, and coronal holes had very dynamic differential-emission-measure (DEM) distributions and high-temperature tails of DEM were considered to come from the contribution of flare-like activity.