INTEGRAL reloaded: spacecraft, instruments and ground system
Abstract
ESA's INTErnational Gamma-Ray Astrophysics Laboratory (INTEGRAL) was launched on 17 Oct 2002 at 06:41 CEST. Since then, it has been providing long, uninterrupted observations (up to about 47 hr, or 170 ksec, per satellite orbit of 2.7 days) with a large field-of-view (fully coded: 100 deg^2), msec time resolution, keV energy resolution, polarization measurements, as well as additional coverage in the optical. This is realized by two main instruments in the 15 keV to 10 MeV range, the spectrometer SPI (spectral resolution 3 keV at 1.8 MeV) and the imager IBIS (angular resolution 12 arcmin FWHM), complemented by X-ray (JEM-X; 3-35 keV) and optical (OMC; Johnson V-band) monitors. All instruments are co-aligned to simultaneously observe the target region. A particle radiation monitor (IREM) measures charged particle fluxes near the spacecraft. The Anti-coincidence subsystems of the main instruments are also efficient all-sky gamma-ray detectors, which provide omni-directional monitoring above ~75 keV. INTEGRAL can also rapidly (within a couple of hours) re-point and conduct Target of Opportunity observations. INTEGRAL has build an impressive legacy: e.g. discovery of >600 new high-energy sources; first-ever direct detection of 56Ni and 56Co radio-active decay lines from a Type Ia supernova; new insights on positron annihilation in the Galactic bulge and disk; pioneering gamma-ray polarization studies. INTEGRAL is also a successful in multi-messenger astronomy: INTEGRAL found the first prompt electromagnetic radiation in coincidence with a binary neutron star merger. More than 1750 papers based on INTEGRAL data have been published in refereed journals. Here we give a comprehensive update of the satellite status after more than 18 years of operations in a harsh space environment, and an account of the successful Ground Segment.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.2106.12446,
title = {INTEGRAL reloaded: spacecraft, instruments and ground system},
author = {Erik Kuulkers and Carlo Ferrigno and Peter Kretschmar and Julia Alfonso-Garzon and Marius Baab and Angela Bazzano and Guillaume Belanger and Ian Benson and Anthony J. Bird and Enrico Bozzo and Soren Brandt and Elliott Coe and Isabel Caballero and Floriane Cangemi and Jerome Chenevez and Bradley Cenko and Nebil Cinar and Alexis Coleiro and Stefano De Padova and Roland Diehl and Claudia Dietze and Albert Domingo and Mark Drapes and Eleonora D'uva and Matthias Ehle and Jacobo Ebrero and Mithrajith Edirimanne and Natan A. Eismont and Timothy Finn and Mariateresa Fiocchi and Elena Garcia Tomas and Gianluca Gaudenzi and Thomas Godard and Andrea Goldwurm and Diego Gotz and Christian Gouiffes and Sergei A. Grebenev and Jochen Greiner and Aleksandra Gros and Lorraine Hanlon and Wim Hermsen and Cristina Hernandez and Margarita Hernanz and Jutta Huebner and Elisabeth Jourdain and Giovanni La Rosa and Claudio Labanti and Philippe Laurent and Alexander Lehanka and Niels Lund and James Madison and Julien Malzac and Jim Martin and J. Miguel Mas-Hesse and Brian McBreen and Alastair McDonald and Julie McEnery and Sandro Mereghetti and Lorenzo Natalucci and Jan-Uwe Ness and Carol Anne Oxborrow and John Palmer and Sibylle Peschke and Francesco Petrucciani and Norbert Pfeil and Michael Reichenbaecher and James Rodi and Jerome Rodriguez and Jean-Pierre Roques and Emilio Salazar Donate and Dave Salt and Celia Sanchez-Fernandez and Aymeric Sauvageon and Volodymyr Savchenko and Sergey Yu. Sazonov and Stefano Scaglioni and Norbert Schartel and Thomas Siegert and Richard Southworth and Rashid A. Sunyaev and Liviu Toma and Pietro Ubertini and Ed P. J. van den Heuvel and Andreas von Kienlin and Nikolai von Krusenstiern and Christoph Winkler and Hajdas Wojciech and Ugo Zannoni},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2106.12446},
year = {2021}
}
Comments
29 pages, 20 figures, accepted for publication in special issue of New Astronomy Reviews