Exploring the Capabilities of the Anti-Coincidence Shield of the International Gamma-Ray Astrophysics Laboratory (INTEGRAL) Spectrometer to Study Solar Flares

Autor: Jürgen Kiener, Karl-Ludwig Klein, Nicole Vilmer, C. Hamadache, Rosa Rodríguez-Gasén, Vincent Tatischeff
Přispěvatelé: CSNSM AN, Centre de Spectrométrie Nucléaire et de Spectrométrie de Masse (CSNSM), Université Paris-Sud - Paris 11 (UP11)-Institut National de Physique Nucléaire et de Physique des Particules du CNRS (IN2P3)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Université Paris-Sud - Paris 11 (UP11)-Institut National de Physique Nucléaire et de Physique des Particules du CNRS (IN2P3)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Centre de Sciences Nucléaires et de Sciences de la Matière (CSNSM), Université Paris-Sud - Paris 11 (UP11)-Institut National de Physique Nucléaire et de Physique des Particules du CNRS (IN2P3)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Laboratoire d'études spatiales et d'instrumentation en astrophysique (LESIA), Université Pierre et Marie Curie - Paris 6 (UPMC)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Observatoire de Paris, Université Paris sciences et lettres (PSL)-Université Paris sciences et lettres (PSL)-Université Paris Diderot - Paris 7 (UPD7)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Institut National de Physique Nucléaire et de Physique des Particules du CNRS (IN2P3)-Université Paris-Sud - Paris 11 (UP11)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Institut National de Physique Nucléaire et de Physique des Particules du CNRS (IN2P3)-Université Paris-Sud - Paris 11 (UP11)-Centre de Sciences Nucléaires et de Sciences de la Matière (CSNSM), Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Institut National de Physique Nucléaire et de Physique des Particules du CNRS (IN2P3)-Université Paris-Sud - Paris 11 (UP11)
Rok vydání: 2013
Předmět:
[PHYS.ASTR.IM]Physics [physics]/Astrophysics [astro-ph]/Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysic [astro-ph.IM]
Photon
010504 meteorology & atmospheric sciences
Astrophysics::High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena
Highly elliptical orbit
Instrumental effects
Astrophysics
01 natural sciences
7. Clean energy
symbols.namesake
Observatory
0103 physical sciences
Astrophysics::Solar and Stellar Astrophysics
010303 astronomy & astrophysics
0105 earth and related environmental sciences
Physics
Spectrometer
Spacecraft
Solar flare
Flares
business.industry
association with flares
Astronomy and Astrophysics
energetic particles
Orbital period
[SDU.ASTR.IM]Sciences of the Universe [physics]/Astrophysics [astro-ph]/Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysic [astro-ph.IM]
13. Climate action
Space and Planetary Science
Van Allen radiation belt
Physics::Space Physics
X-ray bursts
symbols
Astrophysics::Earth and Planetary Astrophysics
business
Zdroj: Solar Physics
Solar Physics, 2013, pp.268. ⟨10.1007/S11207-013-0418-1⟩
Solar Physics, Springer Verlag, 2013, pp.268. ⟨10.1007/S11207-013-0418-1⟩
ISSN: 1573-093X
0038-0938
DOI: 10.1007/s11207-013-0418-1
Popis: The International Gamma-Ray Astrophysics Laboratory (INTEGRAL) is a European Space Agency hard X-ray/γ-ray observatory for astrophysics, covering photon energies from 15 keV to 10 MeV. It was launched in 2002, and since then the Bismuth Germanate (BGO) detectors of the Anti-Coincidence Shield (ACS) of the Spectrometer on INTEGRAL (SPI) have detected many hard X-ray (HXR) bursts from the Sun, producing light curves at photon energies above ≈ 100 keV. The spacecraft has a highly elliptical orbit, providing long uninterrupted observing (about 90 % of the orbital period) with nearly constant background due to the shorter time needed to cross Earth's radiation belts. However, because of technical constraints, INTEGRAL cannot be pointed at the Sun, and high-energy solar photons are always detected in nonstandard observation conditions. To make the data useable for solar studies, we have undertaken a major effort to specify the observing conditions through Monte Carlo simulations of the response of ACS for several selected flares. We checked the performance of the model employed for the Monte Carlo simulations using the Reuven Ramaty High Energy Solar Spectroscopic Imager (RHESSI) observations for the same sample of solar flares. We conclude that although INTEGRAL was not designed to perform solar observations, ACS is a useful instrument for solar-flare research. In particular, its relatively large effective area allows determining good-quality HXR/γ-ray light curves for X- and M-class solar flares and, in some cases, probably also for C-class flares.
Databáze: OpenAIRE
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