Proceedings of SPIE, the International Society for Optical Engineering/Proceedings of SPIE · 1993 · 10 citations · 0 references
Natural SciencesAstronomyRadiation DetectionRadiation MeasurementX-ray AstronomyDetector TechnologyRadiation Imaging DetectorsRadiation InstrumentationScintillation DetectorsX-ray DetectorsX-ray SpectroscopyAstronomical X-ray DetectionCalibration SystemsDetector Energy ResolutionFocal Plane DetectorsGas Proportional CountersRadiation Energy ResolutionScintillation SpectrometersSpectrometer Calibration
The fourth Japanese X-ray astronomy satellite, ASTRO-D, was launched successfully by the Institute of Space and Astronautical Science on February 20, 1993 and was named ASCA. Two of the focal plane detectors are imaging gas scintillation proportional counters (Gas Imaging Spectrometer:GIS). The GIS sensors performed the energy resolution of 8% FWHM at 6 keV, and position resolution of 0.5 mm FWHM on-board, which confirmed their ultimate capability as gas counters. The non-Xray background counting rate was approximately 6 X 10<SUP>-4</SUP> c/s/cm<SUP>2</SUP>/keV in the energy range of 2 - 10 keV, which was as low as that achieved by the Ginga instrument. The scientific results obtained by the GIS sensors are also presented.