In-flight verification of the calibration and performance of the ASTRO-H (Hitomi) Soft X-Ray Spectrometer

Maurice A. Leutenegger; Marc Audard; Kevin R. Boyce; Gregory V. Brown; Meng P. Chiao; Megan E. Eckart; Ryuichi Fujimoto; Akihiro Furuzawa; Matteo Guainazzi; Daniel Haas; Jan-Willem den Herder; Takayuki Hayashi; Ryo Iizuka; Manabu Ishida; Yoshitaka Ishisaki; Richard L. Kelley; Naomichi Kikuchi; Caroline A. Kilbourne; Shu Koyama; Sho Kurashima; Yoshitomo Maeda; Maxim Markevitch; Dan McCammon; Kazuhisa Mitsuda; Hideyuki Mori; Nozomi Nakaniwa; Takashi Okajima; Stéphane Paltani; Robert Petre; F. Scott Porter; Kosuke Sato; Toshiki Sato; Makoto Sawada; Peter J. Serlemitsos; Hiromi Seta; Gary Sneiderman; Yang Soong; Satoshi Sugita; Andrew E. Szymkowiak; Yoh Takei; Makoto Tashiro; Yuzuru Tawara; Masahiro Tsujimoto; Cor P. de Vries; Tomomi Watanabe; Shinya Yamada; Noriko Yamasaki

doi:10.1117/12.2234230

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26 July 2016 In-flight verification of the calibration and performance of the ASTRO-H (Hitomi) Soft X-Ray Spectrometer

Maurice A. Leutenegger, Marc Audard, Kevin R. Boyce, Gregory V. Brown, Meng P. Chiao, Megan E. Eckart, Ryuichi Fujimoto, Akihiro Furuzawa, Matteo Guainazzi, Daniel Haas, Jan-Willem den Herder, Takayuki Hayashi, Ryo Iizuka, Manabu Ishida, Yoshitaka Ishisaki, Richard L. Kelley, Naomichi Kikuchi, Caroline A. Kilbourne, Shu Koyama, Sho Kurashima, Yoshitomo Maeda, Maxim Markevitch, Dan McCammon, Kazuhisa Mitsuda, Hideyuki Mori, Nozomi Nakaniwa, Takashi Okajima, Stéphane Paltani, Robert Petre, F. Scott Porter, Kosuke Sato, Toshiki Sato, Makoto Sawada, Peter J. Serlemitsos, Hiromi Seta, Gary Sneiderman, Yang Soong, Satoshi Sugita, Andrew E. Szymkowiak, Yoh Takei, Makoto Tashiro, Yuzuru Tawara, Masahiro Tsujimoto, Cor P. de Vries, Tomomi Watanabe, Shinya Yamada, Noriko Yamasaki

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Proceedings Volume 9905, Space Telescopes and Instrumentation 2016: Ultraviolet to Gamma Ray; 99053U (2016) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2234230
Event: SPIE Astronomical Telescopes + Instrumentation, 2016, Edinburgh, United Kingdom

Abstract

The Soft X-ray Spectrometer (SXS) onboard the Astro-H (Hitomi) orbiting x-ray observatory featured an array of 36 silicon thermistor x-ray calorimeters optimized to perform high spectral resolution x-ray imaging spectroscopy of astrophysical sources in the 0.3-12 keV band. Extensive pre- flight calibration measurements are the basis for our modeling of the pulse-height-energy relation and energy resolution for each pixel and event grade, telescope collecting area, detector efficiency, and pulse arrival time. Because of the early termination of mission operations, we needed to extract the maximum information from observations performed only days into the mission when the onboard calibration sources had not yet been commissioned and the dewar was still coming into thermal equilibrium, so our technique for reconstructing the per-pixel time-dependent pulse-height-energy relation had to be modified. The gain scale was reconstructed using a combination of an absolute energy scale calibration at a single time using a fiducial from an onboard radioactive source, and calibration of a dominant time-dependent gain drift component using a dedicated calibration pixel, as well as a residual time-dependent variation using spectra from the Perseus cluster of galaxies. The energy resolution was also measured using the onboard radioactive sources. It is consistent with instrument-level measurements accounting for the modest increase in noise due to spacecraft systems interference. We use observations of two pulsars to validate our models of the telescope area and detector efficiency, and to derive a more accurate value for the thickness of the gate valve Be window, which had not been opened by the time mission operations ceased. We use observations of the Crab pulsar to refine the pixel-to-pixel timing and validate the absolute timing.

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Maurice A. Leutenegger, Marc Audard, Kevin R. Boyce, Gregory V. Brown, Meng P. Chiao, Megan E. Eckart, Ryuichi Fujimoto, Akihiro Furuzawa, Matteo Guainazzi, Daniel Haas, Jan-Willem den Herder, Takayuki Hayashi, Ryo Iizuka, Manabu Ishida, Yoshitaka Ishisaki, Richard L. Kelley, Naomichi Kikuchi, Caroline A. Kilbourne, Shu Koyama, Sho Kurashima, Yoshitomo Maeda, Maxim Markevitch, Dan McCammon, Kazuhisa Mitsuda, Hideyuki Mori, Nozomi Nakaniwa, Takashi Okajima, Stéphane Paltani, Robert Petre, F. Scott Porter, Kosuke Sato, Toshiki Sato, Makoto Sawada, Peter J. Serlemitsos, Hiromi Seta, Gary Sneiderman, Yang Soong, Satoshi Sugita, Andrew E. Szymkowiak, Yoh Takei, Makoto Tashiro, Yuzuru Tawara, Masahiro Tsujimoto, Cor P. de Vries, Tomomi Watanabe, Shinya Yamada, and Noriko Yamasaki "In-flight verification of the calibration and performance of the ASTRO-H (Hitomi) Soft X-Ray Spectrometer", Proc. SPIE 9905, Space Telescopes and Instrumentation 2016: Ultraviolet to Gamma Ray, 99053U (26 July 2016); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2234230

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