Because SXT utilized a charge-coupled device (CCD) as its readout device, perhaps being the first X-ray astronomical telescope to do so, its "data cube" of images was both extensive and convenient, and it revealed much interesting detail about the behavior of the solar corona.

Previous solar soft X-ray observations, such as those of Skylab, had been restricted to film as a readout device.

Yohkoh therefore returned many novel scientific results, especially regarding solar flares and other forms of magnetic activity.

[2] The mission ended after more than ten years of successful observation when it went into its "safehold" mode during an annular eclipse on 14 December 2001, 20:58:33 and the spacecraft lost lock on the Sun.

Typical time resolution was 2 s in flare mode and 8 s in quiet (no flare) mode, the maximum time resolution in 0.5 s. For spectral discrimination, SXT employed wide-band filters installed on a filter wheel.