The FREGATE experiment aboard HETE-II has been successfully integrated into the Third Interplanetary Network (IPN) of gamma-ray burst detectors. We show how HETEs timing has been verified in flight, and discuss what HETE can do for the IPN and vice-versa.
Between 2000 November and 2006 May, one or more spacecraft of the interplanetary network (IPN) detected 226 cosmic gamma-ray bursts that were also detected by the FREGATE experiment aboard the HETE-II spacecraft. During this period, the IPN consisted of up to nine spacecraft, and using triangulation, the localizations of 157 bursts were obtained. We present the IPN localization data on these events.
The Mars Odyssey spacecraft carries two experiments which are capable of detecting cosmic gamma-ray bursts and soft gamma repeaters. Since April 2001 they have detected over 275 bursts and, in conjunction with the other spacecraft of the interplanetary network, localized many of them rapidly and precisely enough to allow sensitive multi-wavelength counterpart searches. We present the Mars Odyssey mission and describe the burst capabilities of the two experiments in detail. We explain how the spacecraft timing and ephemeris have been verified in-flight using bursts from objects whose precise positions are known by other means. Finally, we show several examples of localizations and discuss future plans for the Odyssey mission and the network as a whole.
The extremely energetic (~10^-4 erg/cm^2) gamma-ray burst (GRB) of 1999 December 8 was triangulated to a ~14 sq. arcmin. error box ~1.8 d after its arrival at Earth with the 3rd interplanetary network (IPN), consisting of the Ulysses, Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous (NEAR), and WIND spacecraft. Radio observations with the Very Large Array ~2.7 d after the burst revealed a bright fading counterpart whose position is consistent with that of an optical transient source whose redshift is z=0.707. We present the time history, peak flux, fluence, and refined 1.3 sq. arcmin. error box of this event, and discuss its energetics. This is the first time that a counterpart has been found for a GRB localized only by the IPN.
We report on the radio-emission characteristics of 222 interplanetary (IP) shocks. A surprisingly large fraction of the IP shocks (~34%) is radio quiet (i.e., the shocks lacked type II radio bursts). The CMEs associated with the RQ shocks are generally slow (average speed ~535 km/s) and only ~40% of the CMEs were halos. The corresponding numbers for CMEs associated with radio loud (RL) shocks are 1237 km/s and 72%, respectively. The RQ shocks are also accompanied by lower peak soft X-ray flux. CMEs associated with RQ (RL) shocks are generally accelerating (decelerating). The kinematics of CMEs associated with the km type II bursts is similar to those of RQ shocks, except that the former are slightly more energetic. Comparison of the shock The RQ shocks seem to be mostly subcritical and quasi-perpendicular. The radio-quietness is predominant in the rise phase and decreases through the maximum and declining phases of solar cycle 23. The solar sources of the shock-driving CMEs follow the sunspot butterfly diagram, consistent with the higher-energy requirement for driving shocks.
The new technique of measuring frequency by optical lattice clocks now approaches to the relative precision of $(Delta f/f)=O(10^{-18})$. We propose to place such precise clocks in space and to use Doppler tracking method for detecting low-frequency gravitational wave below 1 Hz. Our idea is to locate three spacecrafts at one A.U. distance (say at L1, L4 & L5 of the Sun-Earth orbit), and apply the Doppler tracking method by communicating the time each other. Applying the current available technologies, we obtain the sensitivity for gravitational wave with three or four-order improvement ($h_{rm n}sim 10^{-17}$ or $10^{-18}$ level in $10^{-5}$Hz -- $1$ Hz) than that of Cassini spacecraft in 2001. This sensitivity enables us to observe black-hole mergers of their mass greater than $10^5 M_odot$ in the cosmological scale. Based on the hierarchical growth model of black-holes in galaxies, we estimate the event rate of detection will be 20-50 a year. We nickname INO (Interplanetary Network of Optical Lattice Clocks) for this system, named after Tadataka Ino (1745--1818), a Japanese astronomer, cartographer, and geodesist.