Inflight performance of the position sensitive proportional counter on board the X-ray astronomy satellite ROSAT

Author

Pfeffermann, Elmar ; Briel, Ulrich G.

Author_Institution

Max-Planck-Inst. fuer Extraterrestrische Phys., Garching, Germany

Volume

39

Issue

4

fYear

1992

fDate

8/1/1992 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

976

Lastpage

980

Abstract

Two redundant position-sensitive proportional counters (PSPC) operating in the energy range from 0.1 to 2.4 keV were the prime focal plane instruments on board the X-ray astronomy satellite ROSAT. ROSAT was launched on June 1, 1990 and operated very efficiently. The authors report the orbit performance of the PSPC. Apart from its good energy and position resolution the detector had a very high-charged particle background rejection efficiency of 99.8%. The gas gain of the detector was very stable. Short-time variations due to thermal variations over one orbit were less than 1%. The long-term drift over one month was 0.5%

Keywords

X-ray astronomy; artificial satellites; astronomical instruments; position sensitive particle detectors; proportional counters; space research; 0.1 to 2.4 keV; X-ray astronomy satellite ROSAT; energy resolution; gas gain; high-charged particle background rejection efficiency; inflight performance; long-term drift; position resolution; position sensitive proportional counter; prime focal plane instruments; soft X-rays; thermal variations; Astronomy; Cathodes; Counting circuits; Detectors; Energy resolution; Instruments; Mirrors; Satellites; Telescopes; X-ray imaging;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Nuclear Science, IEEE Transactions on

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0018-9499

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/23.159744

Filename

159744