English

A simple, flexible method for timing cross-calibration of space missions

Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics 2026-01-08 v3 High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena

Abstract

The timing (cross-)calibration of astronomical instruments is often done by comparing pulsar times-of-arrival (TOAs) to a reference timing model. In high-energy astronomy, the choice of solar system ephemerides and source positions used to barycenter the photon arrival times has a significant impact on the procedure, requiring a full reprocessing of the data each time a new convention is used. Our method, developed as part of the activities of the International Astronomical Consortium for High Energy Calibration (IACHEC), adapts an existing pulsar solution to arbitrary JPL ephemerides and source positions by simulating geocentric TOAs and refitting timing models (implemented with PINT). We validate the procedure and apply it to thousands of observations of the Crab pulsar from 15 missions spanning 1996--2025, demonstrating inter-ephemeris TOA consistency at the 5μ\lesssim5 \mus level, using the DE200/FK5-based Jodrell Bank Monthly Ephemeris as a common reference. We release the TOAExtractor open-source tool and a TOA database to support future calibration and scientific studies. Instrument timing performance is broadly consistent with mission specifications; the X-ray-to-radio phase offset varies with energy and time at a level that is marginally consistent with the uncertainties of the radio ephemeris, motivating coordinated multiwavelength follow-up.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2509.13865,
  title  = {A simple, flexible method for timing cross-calibration of space missions},
  author = {Matteo Bachetti and Yukikatsu Terada and Megumi Shidatsu and Craig B. Markwardt and Yong Chen and Weiwei Cui and Giancarlo Cusumano and Dawei Han and Shumei Jia and Chulsoo Kang and Vinay L. Kashyap and Lucien Kuiper and Xiaobo Li and Yugo Motogami and Naoyuki Ota and Simone Pagliarella and Katja Pottschmidt and Simon R. Rosen and Arnold Rots and Makoto Sawada and Mutsumi Sugizaki and Toshihiro Takagi and Takuya Takahashi and Toru Tamagawa and Youli Tuo and Yi-Jung Yang and Marina Yoshimoto and Juan Zhang},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2509.13865},
  year   = {2026}
}

Comments

22 pages, 7 figures, 4 tables. Published in PASP