Two decades of Chandra high-resolution camera operations: lessons learned and future prospects

Ralph P. Kraft; Paul Nulsen; Grant Tremblay; Daniel Patnaude; Almus Kenter; Thomas Gauron; Gerald Austin; Esra Bulbul; Linda N. Parker; Ronald F. Elsner; Stephen L. O'Dell; Joseph I. Minow; Stephen S. Murray

doi:10.1117/12.2314284

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6 July 2018 Two decades of Chandra high-resolution camera operations: lessons learned and future prospects

Ralph P. Kraft, Paul Nulsen, Grant Tremblay, Daniel Patnaude, Almus Kenter, Thomas Gauron, Gerald Austin, Esra Bulbul, Linda N. Parker, Ronald F. Elsner, Stephen L. O'Dell, Joseph I. Minow, Stephen S. Murray

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Proceedings Volume 10699, Space Telescopes and Instrumentation 2018: Ultraviolet to Gamma Ray; 106991T (2018) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2314284
Event: SPIE Astronomical Telescopes + Instrumentation, 2018, Austin, Texas, United States

Abstract

We summarize nearly two decades of successful operation of the Chandra High Resolution Camera (HRC). The HRC is a pair of cesium–iodide (CsI) coated microchannel plate X-ray detectors launched in July, 1999, one optimized for widefield imaging (HRC-I) and a second as a readout for X-ray transmission gratings (HRC-S). We discuss the temporal evolution of the performance of the flight instrument, the impact of extended exposure to the charged particle environment of high Earth orbit, and lessons learned from nineteen years of flight operations. We also describe our investigation of new algorithms to remove more efficiently the charged particle background from the science data, as we prepare for another decade of operation.

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Ralph P. Kraft, Paul Nulsen, Grant Tremblay, Daniel Patnaude, Almus Kenter, Thomas Gauron, Gerald Austin, Esra Bulbul, Linda N. Parker, Ronald F. Elsner, Stephen L. O'Dell, Joseph I. Minow, and Stephen S. Murray "Two decades of Chandra high-resolution camera operations: lessons learned and future prospects", Proc. SPIE 10699, Space Telescopes and Instrumentation 2018: Ultraviolet to Gamma Ray, 106991T (6 July 2018); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2314284

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