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Register a new userUsing ACIS on the Chandra X-ray Observatory as a particle radiation monitor
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The Advanced CCD Imaging Spectrometer (ACIS) is one of two focal-plane instruments on the Chandra X-ray Observatory. During initial radiation-belt passes, the exposed ACIS suffered significant radiation damage from trapped soft protons scattering off the x-ray telescopes mirrors. The primary effect of this damage was to increase the charge-transfer inefficiency (CTI) of the ACIS 8 front-illuminated CCDs. Subsequently, the Chandra team implemented procedures to remove the ACIS from the telescopes focus during high-radiation events: planned protection during radiation-belt transits; autonomous protection triggered by an on-board radiation monitor; and manual intervention based upon assessment of space-weather conditions. However, as Chandras multilayer insulation ages, elevated temperatures have reduced the effectiveness of the on-board radiation monitor for autonomous protection. Here we investigate using the ACIS CCDs themselves as a radiation monitor. We explore the 10-year database to evaluate the CCDs response to particle radiation and to compare this response with other radiation data and environment models.
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The Chandra X-ray Observatory was launched almost 19 years ago and has been delivering spectacular science over the course of its mission. The Advanced CCD Imager Spectrometer is the prime instrument on the satellite, conducting over 90% of the observations. The CCDs operate at a temperature of -120 C and the optical blocking filter in front of the CCDs is at a temperature of approximately -60C. The surface of the OBF has accumulated a layer of contamination over the course of the mission. We have been characterizing the thickness, chemical composition, and spatial distribution of the contamination layer as a function of time over the mission. All three have exhibited significant changes with time. There has been a dramatic decrease in the accumulation rate of the contaminant starting in 2017. The lower accumulation rate may be due to a decrease in the deposition rate or an increase in the vaporization rate or a combination of the two. We show that the current calibration file which models the additional absorption of the contamination layer is significantly overestimating that additional absorption by using the standard model spectrum for the supernova remnant 1E 0102.2-7219 developed by the International Astronomical Consortium for High Energy Calibration. In addition, spectral data from the cluster of galaxies known as Abell 1795 and the Blazar Markarian 421 are used to generate a model of the absorption produced by the contamination layer. The Chandra X-ray Center calibration team is preparing a revised calibration file that more accurately represents the complex time dependence of the accumulation rate, the spatial dependence, and the chemical composition of the contaminant. Given the rapid changes in the contamination layer over the past year, future calibration observations at a higher cadence will be necessary to more accurately monitor such changes.
JANUS is a NASA small explorer class mission which just completed phase A and was intended for a 2013 launch date. The primary science goals of JANUS are to use high redshift (6<z<12) gamma ray bursts and quasars to explore the formation history of the first stars in the early universe and to study contributions to reionization. The X-Ray Flash Monitor (XRFM) and the Near-IR Telescope (NIRT) are the two primary instruments on JANUS. XRFM has been designed to detect bright X-ray flashes (XRFs) and gamma ray bursts (GRBs) in the 1-20 keV energy band over a wide field of view (4 steradians), thus facilitating the detection of z>6 XRFs/GRBs, which can be further studied by other instruments. XRFM would use a coded mask aperture design with hybrid CMOS Si detectors. It would be sensitive to XRFs/GRBs with flux in excess of approximately 240 mCrab. The spacecraft is designed to rapidly slew to source positions following a GRB trigger from XRFM. XRFM instrument design parameters and science goals are presented in this paper.
We report on the discovery of 41 new pulsating sources in the data of the Chandra Advanced CCD Imaging Spectrometer, which is sensitive to X-ray photons in the 0.3-10 keV band. The archival data of the first 15 years of Chandra observations were retrieved and analysed by means of fast Fourier transforms, employing a peak-detection algorithm able to screen candidate signals in an automatic fashion. We carried out the search for new X-ray pulsators in light curves with more than 50 photons, for a total of about 190,000 lightcurves out of about 430,000 extracted. With these numbers, the ChAndra Timing Survey at Brera And Roma astronomical observatories (CATS@BAR) - as we called the project - represents the largest ever systematic search for coherent signals in the classic X-ray band. More than 50 per cent of the signals were confirmed by further Chandra (for those sources with two or more pointings), XMM-Newton or ROSAT data. The period distribution of the new X-ray pulsators above about 2,000s resembles that of cataclysmic variables, while there is a paucity of sources with shorter period and low fluxes. Since there is not an obvious bias against these detections, a possible interpretation is in terms of a magnetic gating mechanism in accreting neutron stars. Finally, we note that CATS@BAR is a living project and the detection algorithm will continue to be routinely applied to the new Chandra data as they become public. Based on the results obtained so far, we expect to discover about three new pulsators every year.
Charged Particle Monitor (CPM) on-board the AstroSat satellite is an instrument designed to detect the flux of charged particles at the satellite location. A Cesium Iodide Thallium (CsI(Tl)) crystal is used with a Kapton window to detect protons with energies greater than 1 MeV. The ground calibration of CPM was done using gamma-rays from radioactive sources and protons from particle accelerators. Based on the ground calibration results, energy deposition above 1 MeV are accepted and particle counts are recorded. It is found that CPM counts are steady and the signal for the onset and exit of South Atlantic Anomaly (SAA) region are generated in a very reliable and stable manner.
The International X-ray Observatory (IXO) is a joint ESA-JAXA-NASA effort to address fundamental and timely questions in astrophysics: What happens close to a black hole? How did supermassive black holes grow? How does large scale structure form? What is the connection between these processes? To address these questions IXO will employ optics with 3 sq m collecting area and 5 arc sec angular resolution - 20 times more collecting area at 1 keV than any previous X-ray observatory. Focal plane instruments will deliver a 100-fold increase in effective area for high-resolution spectroscopy, deep spectral imaging over a wide field of view, unprecedented polarimetric sensitivity, microsecond spectroscopic timing, and high count rate capability. The mission is being planned for launch in 2021 to an L2 orbit, with a five-year lifetime and consumables for 10 years.
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