Understanding and reducing the in-orbit instrumental backgrounds are essential to achieving high sensitivity in hard X-ray astronomical observations. The observational data of the Hard X-ray Imager (HXI) on board the Hitomi satellite provides useful information on the background components, owing to its multi-layer configuration with different atomic numbers: the HXI consists of a stack of four layers of Si (Z = 14) detectors and one layer of CdTe (Z = 48, 52) detector surrounded by well-type BGO (Bi4Ge3O12) active shields. Based on the observational data, the backgrounds of top Si layer, the three underlying Si layers, and the CdTe layer are inferred to be dominated by different components, namely, low-energy electrons, albedo neutrons, and proton-induced radioactivation, respectively. Monte Carlo simulations of the in-orbit background of the HXI reproduce the observed background spectrum of each layer well, thereby verifying the above hypothesis quantitatively. In addition, we suggest the inclusion of an electron shield to reduce the background.
The Hard X-ray Imager (HXI) onboard Hitomi (ASTRO-H) is an imaging spectrometer covering hard X-ray energies of 5-80 keV. Combined with the hard X-ray telescope, it enables imaging spectroscopy with an angular resolution of $1^\prime.7$ half-power diameter, in a field of view of $9^\prime\times9^\prime$. The main imager is composed of 4 layers of Si detectors and 1 layer of CdTe detector, stacked to cover wide energy band up to 80 keV, surrounded by an active shield made of BGO scintillator to reduce the background. The HXI started observations 12 days before the Hitomi loss, and successfully …
The Soft X-ray Imager (SXI) is an imaging spectrometer using charge-coupled devices (CCDs) aboard the Hitomi X-ray observatory. The SXI sensor has four CCDs with an imaging area size of $31~{\rm mm} \times 31~{\rm mm}$ arranged in a $2 \times 2$ array. Combined with the X-ray mirror, the Soft X-ray Telescope, the SXI detects X-rays between $0.4~{\rm keV}$ and $12~{\rm keV}$ and covers a $38^{\prime} \times 38^{\prime}$ field-of-view. The CCDs are P-channel fully-depleted, back-illumination type with a depletion layer thickness of $200~μ{\rm m}$. Low operation temperature down to $-120~^\circ{\…
Gamma-ray polarization offers a unique probes into the geometry of the gamma-ray emission process in celestial objects. The Soft Gamma-ray Detector (SGD) onboard the X-ray observatory Hitomi is a Si/CdTe Compton camera and is expected to be an excellent polarimeter, as well as a highly sensitive spectrometer due to its good angular coverage and resolution for Compton scattering. A beam test of the final-prototype for the SGD Compton camera was conducted to demonstrate its polarimetric capability and to verify and calibrate the Monte Carlo simulation of the instrument. The modulation factor of …
We present new measurements of the vertical density profile of the Earth's atmosphere at altitudes between 70 and 200 km, based on Earth occultations of the Crab Nebula observed with the X-ray Imaging Spectrometer onboard Suzaku and the Hard X-ray Imager onboard Hitomi. X-ray spectral variation due to the atmospheric absorption is used to derive tangential column densities of the absorbing species, i.e., N and O including atoms and molecules, along the line of sight. The tangential column densities are then inverted to obtain the atmospheric number density. The data from 219 occultation scans …
We report the radiation hardness of a p-channel CCD developed for the X-ray CCD camera onboard the XRISM satellite. This CCD has basically the same characteristics as the one used in the previous Hitomi satellite, but newly employs a notch structure of potential for signal charges by increasing the implant concentration in the channel. The new device was exposed up to approximately $7.9 \times 10^{10} \mathrm{~protons~cm^{-2}}$ at 100 MeV. The charge transfer inefficiency was estimated as a function of proton fluence with an ${}^{55} \mathrm{Fe}$ source. A device without the notch structure wa…
We present the result of the in-flight calibration of the effective area of the Soft X-ray Spectrometer (SXS) onboard the Hitomi X-ray satellite using an observation of the Crab nebula. We corrected for the artifacts when observing high count rate sources with the X-ray microcalorimeter. We then constructed a spectrum in the 0.5-20 keV band, which we modeled with a single power-law continuum attenuated by an interstellar extinction. We evaluated the systematic uncertainty upon the spectral parameters by various calibration items. In the 2-12 keV band, the SXS result is consistent with the lite…
We describe the in-orbit performance of the soft X-ray imaging system consisting of the Soft X-ray Telescope and the Soft X-ray Imager aboard Hitomi. Verification and calibration of imaging and spectroscopic performance are carried out making the best use of the limited data of less than three weeks. Basic performance including a large field of view of 38'x38' is verified with the first light image of the Perseus cluster of galaxies. Amongst the small number of observed targets, the on-minus-off pulse image for the out-of-time events of the Crab pulsar enables us to measure a half power diamet…
The AstroSat satellite is designed to make multi-waveband observations of astronomical sources and the Cadmium Zinc Telluride Imager (CZTI) instrument of AstroSat covers the hard X-ray band. CZTI has a large area position sensitive hard X-ray detector equipped with a Coded Aperture Mask, thus enabling simultaneous background measurement. Ability to record simultaneous detection of ionizing interactions in multiple detector elements is a special feature of the instrument and this is exploited to provide polarization information in the 100 - 380 keV region. CZTI provides sensitive spectroscopic …
Hitomi (ASTRO-H) carries two Hard X-ray Telescopes (HXTs) that can focus X-rays up to 80 keV. Combined with the Hard X-ray Imagers (HXIs) that detect the focused X-rays, imaging spectroscopy in the high-energy band from 5 keV to 80 keV is made possible. We studied characteristics of HXTs after the launch such as the encircled energy function (EEF) and the effective area using the data of a Crab observation. The half power diameters (HPDs) in the 5--80 keV band evaluated from the EEFs are 1.59 arcmin for HXT-1 and 1.65 arcmin for HXT-2. Those are consistent with the HPDs measured with ground ex…
FORCE is a Japan-US space-based astronomy mission for an X-ray imaging spectroscopy in an energy range of 1--80 keV. The Wideband Hybrid X-ray Imager (WHXI), which is the main focal plane detector, will use a hybrid semiconductor imager stack composed of silicon and cadmium telluride (CdTe). The silicon imager will be a certain type of the silicon-on-insulator (SOI) pixel sensor, named the X-ray pixel (XRPIX) series. Since the sensor has a small pixel size (30--36 $μ$m) and a thick sensitive region (300--500 $μ$m), understanding the detector response is not trivial and is important in order to…
Hard X-ray astronomical observatories in orbit suffer from a significant amount of background due to radioactivation induced by cosmic-ray protons and/or geomagnetically trapped protons. Within the framework of a full Monte Carlo simulation, we present modeling of in-orbit instrumental background dominated by radioactivation. To reduce the computation time required by straightforward simulations of delayed emissions from activated isotopes, we insert a semi-analytical calculation that converts production probabilities of radioactive isotopes by interaction of the primary protons into decay rat…
We have been developing P-channel Charge-Coupled Devices (CCDs) for the upcoming X-ray Astronomy Satellite XRISM, planned to be launched in 2021. While the basic design of the CCD camera (Soft X-ray Imager: SXI) is almost the same as that of the lost Hitomi (ASTRO-H) observatory, we are planning to reduce the "light leakages" that is one of the largest problems recognized in Hitomi data. We adopted a double-layer optical blocking layer on the XRISM CCDs and also added an extra aluminum layer on the backside of them. We develop a newly designed test sample CCD and irradiate it with optical ligh…
Initial radiometric calibration of the High-Resolution EUV Imager ($\textrm{HRI}_\textrm{EUV}$) of the Extreme Ultraviolet Imager (EUI) instrument onboard Solar Orbiter
Royal Observatory of Belgium（比利时皇家天文台）；Institut d’Astrophysique Spatiale, CNRS, Univ. Paris-Sud, Université Paris-Saclay（空间天体物理研究所，法国国家科学研究中心，巴黎南大学，巴黎萨克雷大学）；European Commission, DG Energy, Directorate D: Nuclear Energy, Safety and ITER（欧盟委员会，能源总司，D局：核能、安全与ITER）；Laboratoire Charles Fabry, Institut d’Optique Graduate School, Université Paris-Saclay（夏尔·法布里实验室，高等光学研究院，巴黎萨克雷大学）；Physikalisch-Meteorologisches Observatorium Davos, World Radiation Center（达沃斯物理气象观测站，世界辐射中心）；UCL-Mullard Space Science Laboratory（伦敦大学学院-穆拉德空间科学实验室）；Centre Spatial de Liège, Université de Liège（列日航天中心，列日大学）；Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research（马克斯·普朗克太阳系研究所）
The Helioseismic and Magnetic Imager (HMI) instrument is a major component of NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) spacecraft. Since beginning normal science operations on 1 May 2010, HMI has operated with remarkable continuity, e.g. during the more than five years of the SDO prime mission that ended 30 September 2015, HMI collected 98.4% of all possible 45-second velocity maps; minimizing gaps in these full-disk Dopplergrams is crucial for helioseismology. HMI velocity, intensity, and magnetic-field measurements are used in numerous investigations, so understanding the quality of the data …
The extreme ultraviolet (EUV) observations are widely used in solar activity research and space weather forecasting since they can observe both the solar eruptions and the source regions of the solar wind. Flat field processing is indispensable to remove the instrumental non-uniformity of a solar EUV imager in producing high-quality scientific data from original observed data. Fengyun-3E (FY-3E) is a meteorological satellite operated in Sun-synchronous orbit, and the routine EUV imaging data from the Solar X-ray and Extreme Ultraviolet Imager (X-EUVI) onboard FY-3E has the characteristics of c…
The imaging and spectral performance of CdTe double-sided strip detectors (CdTe-DSDs) was evaluated for the ASTRO-H mission. The charcterized CdTe-DSDs have a strip pitch of 0.25 mm, an imaging area of 3.2 cm$\times$3.2 cm and a thickness of 0.75 mm. The detector was successfully operated at a temperature of $-20^\circ$C and with an applied bias voltage of 250 V. By using two-strip events as well as one-strip events for the event reconstruction, a good energy resolution of 2.0 keV at 59.5 keV and a sub-strip spatial resolution was achieved. The hard X-ray and gamma-ray response of CdTe-DSDs is…
Responses of the X-ray spectrometer/imager STIX onboard Solar Orbiter
University of Applied Sciences and Arts Northwestern Switzerland (FHNW)（西北瑞士应用科学与艺术大学）；The Physical Meteorological Observatory and World Radiation Center (PMOD/WRC)（物理气象观测站与世界辐射中心）；IRFU, CEA, Université Paris-Saclay and Université Paris Diderot, AIM, Sorbonne Paris Cité, CEA, CNRS（IRFU、CEA、巴黎萨克雷大学和巴黎第七大学、AIM、索邦巴黎西大、CEA、CNRS）
XRISM (X-Ray Imaging and Spectroscopy Mission), with the Resolve high-resolution spectrometer and the Xtend wide-field imager on-board, is designed to build on the successes of the abbreviated Hitomi mission to address outstanding astrophysical questions using high resolution X-ray spectroscopy. In preparation for launch, the XRISM Science Data Center (SDC) is constructing and testing an integrated and automated system for data transfer and processing based upon the Hitomi framework, introducing improvements informed by previous experience and internal collaboration. The XRISM pipeline ingests…
The Cadmium Zinc Telluride (CZT) Imager onboard AstroSat, consists of pixelated CZT detectors, which are sensitive to hard X-rays above 20 keV. The individual pixels are triggered by ionising events occurring in them, and the detectors operate in a self-triggered mode, recording each event separately with information about its time of incidence, detector co-ordinates, and channel that scales with the amount of ionisation. The detectors are sensitive not only to photons from astrophysical sources of interest, but also prone to a number of other events like background X-rays, cosmic rays, and no…
Quantitative and analytical analysis of modulation process of the collimator is a great challenge, and is also of great value to the design and development of Fourier transform imaging telescopes. The Hard X-ray Imager (HXI), as one of the three payloads onboard the Advanced Space-based Solar Observatory(ASO-S) mission, adopts modulating Fourier-Transformation imaging technique and will be used to explore mechanism of energy release and transmission in solar flare activities. As an important step to reconstruct the images of solar flares, accurate modulation functions of HXI are needed. In thi…
The Filter Imager SuFI and the Image Stabilization and Light Distribution System ISLiD of the Sunrise Balloon-Borne Observatory: Instrument Description
A space-borne hard X-ray collimator, comprising 91 pairs of grids, has been developed for the Hard X-ray Imager (HXI). The HXI is one of the three scientific instruments onboard the first Chinese solar mission: the Advanced Space-based Solar Observatory (ASO-S). The HXI collimator (HXI-C) is a spatial modulation X-ray telescope designed to observe hard X-rays emitted by energetic electrons in solar flares. This paper presents the detailed design of the HXI-C for the qualification model that will be inherited by the flight model. Series tests on the HXI-C qualification model are reported to ver…
Here we present the conceptual design of a wide field imager onboard a 6U class CubeSat platform for the study of GRB prompt and afterglow emission and detection of electromagnetic counterparts of gravitational waves in soft X-rays. The planned instrument configuration consists of an array of X-ray Hybrid CMOS detectors (HCD), chosen for their soft-X-ray response, flexible and rapid readout rate, and low power, which makes these detectors well suited for detecting bright transients on a CubeSat platform. The wide field imager is realized by a 2D coded mask. We will give an overview of the inst…
Cadmium Zinc Telluride Imager (CZTI) onboard AstroSat has been a prolific Gamma-Ray Burst (GRB) monitor. While the 2-pixel Compton scattered events (100 - 300 keV) are used to extract sensitive spectroscopic information, the inclusion of the low-gain pixels (around 20% of the detector plane) after careful calibration extends the energy range of Compton energy spectra to 600 keV. The new feature also allows single-pixel spectroscopy of the GRBs to the sub-MeV range which is otherwise limited to 150 keV. We also introduced a new noise rejection algorithm in the analysis ('Compton noise'). These …
X-ray and Gamma-ray polarization measurements of the prompt emission of Gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) are believed to be extremely important for testing various models of GRBs. So far, the available measurements of hard X-ray polarization of GRB prompt emission have not significantly constrained the GRB models, particularly because of the difficulty of measuring polarization in these bands. The CZT Imager (CZTI) onboard {\em AstroSat} is primarily an X-ray spectroscopic instrument that also works as a wide angle GRB monitor due to the transparency of its support structure above 100 keV. It also has …
Signal processing and data acquisition system for the BTO detectors onboard COSI
Space Sciences Laboratory, University of California, Berkeley（加州大学伯克利分校空间科学实验室）；International Center for Quantum-field Measurement Systems for Studies of the Universe and Particles (QUP, WPI), KEK（高能加速器研究机构量子场测量系统国际中心）；Department of Physics, Nagoya University（名古屋大学物理学系）；The Hakubi Center for Advanced Research, Kyoto University（京都大学博古利高级研究中心）；Department of Physics, Kyoto University（京都大学物理学系）
The Cadmium Zinc Telluride Imager (CZTI) is an imaging instrument onboard AstroSat. This instrument operates as a nearly open all-sky detector above ~60 keV, making possible long integrations irrespective of the spacecraft pointing. We present a technique based on the AstroSat-CZTI data to explore the hard X-ray characteristics of the $γ$-ray pulsar population. We report highly significant ($\sim 30σ$) detection of hard X-ray (60--380 keV) pulse profile of the Crab pulsar using $\sim$5000 ks of CZTI observations within 5 to 70 degrees of Crab position in the sky, using a custom algorithm devel…
The ESA/NASA Solar Orbiter space mission has been successfully launched in February 2020. Onboard is the Polarimetric and Helioseismic Imager (SO/PHI), which has two telescopes, a High Resolution Telescope (HRT) and the Full Disc Telescope (FDT). The instrument is designed to infer the photospheric magnetic field and line-of-sight velocity through differential imaging of the polarised light emitted by the Sun. It calculates the full Stokes vector at 6 wavelength positions at the Fe I 617.3 nm absorption line. Due to telemetry constraints, the instrument nominally processes these Stokes profile…
The Sun Coronal Ejection Tracker (SunCET) is an extreme ultraviolet imager and spectrograph instrument concept for tracking coronal mass ejections through the region where they experience the majority of their acceleration: the difficult-to-observe middle corona. It contains a wide field of view (0-4~\Rs) imager and a 1~Å spectral-resolution-irradiance spectrograph spanning 170-340~Å. It leverages new detector technology to read out different areas of the detector with different integration times, resulting in what we call "simultaneous high dynamic range", as opposed to the traditional high d…
