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One of the scientific instruments of Argentine design carried
aboard the SAC-B was the Hard
X-Ray Spectrometer, conceived by the
Institute of Astronomy and Space Physics (IAFE)
and manufactured, integrated and tested by INVAP.
The instrument was to measure the temporal evolution of X-ray
emissions from solar flares and non-solar gamma ray bursts. Among
the scientific payload of the mission was the Goddard
X-Ray Experiment, (GXRE), a combination
of detectors to measure soft X-ray emitted by solar flares and
gamma ray bursts provided by NASA further instruments
carried aboard was CUBIC, a diffuse X-ray background detector
using CCD technology from Pennsylvania
State University (USA); and ISENA,
an Italian instrument to measure energetic neutral atoms.
Instrument |
Institution |
Objetive |
Power
Range |
HXRS |
IAFE (Arg) |
Solar x-ray &
GRB |
20-320 KeV |
CUBIC |
Penn State Univ.(USA) |
Diffuse x-ray Bkg. |
0.1-10
KeV |
GXRE
1 |
GSFC/NASA
(USA) |
Solar x-ray |
2-100 KeV |
GXRE
2 |
GSFC/NASA
(USA) |
X-ray - GRB |
>30 KeV |
ISENA |
IFSI/CNR
(Italy) |
Global Imaging
at source regions of energetic particles |
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HXRS
The HXRS was designed
by the Argentine Institute of Astronomy
and Space Physics (IAFE)
and developed, constructed and tested by INVAP.
The HXRS was designed
for the observation of the Hard X-rays spectrum
between 20 and 320 KeV of rapidly varying events
on time scales as short as tens of milliseconds.
In addition to the study of the temporal evolution
of X-ray emissions during solar flares, the HXRS
might have provided information on the temporal
evolution of non-solar gamma-ray bursts
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The major scientific goal of the HXRS
was the understanding of temporal evolution of energy
release during solar flares on the time scales of the
processes involved. In combination with the soft X-ray
observations from the NASA-provided SoXS,
it would have provided a combination of temporal and spectral
resolution and energy coverage.
The main detector was a NaI(Tl) scintillator crystal of
12.7 cm diameter and 4.5 cm height, coupled to three 3.8
cm diameter ruggedized photomultipliers. In-flight energy
calibration was provided by an Am241 radioactive source
mounted between two stacked ion implanted solid state
detectors facing the main detector. Calibration spectra
were obtained from the coincidence between the 59.6 KeV
X-rays and the MeV range alpha particles emitted by the
source. Calibration spectra were accumulated in 22 equally
spaced channels. A charged particle monitor generated
a radiation belt alarm during passages through the South
Atlantic Anomaly to protect the PMTs from radiation damage.
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