With the advent of the third generation synchrotron radiation, we can perform experiments on the threshold behavior of the satellites including the excitation dynamics in atoms. Especially, x‐ray emission spectroscopy is a suitable tool to study the satellites on the electron correlation. The contributions of direct ionization, i.e, the shake‐off process in Fe and indirect ionization of Coster‐Kronig transition in Au have not been investigated to the x‐ray emission spectra yet. We present the contribution of the spectator holes to the processes around the threshold. © 2003 American Institute of Physics