Burst Alert Telescope (BAT) on the Swift MIDEX mission

Scott D. Barthelmy

doi:10.1117/12.506779

3 February 2004 The burst Alert Telescope (BAT) on the Swift MIDEX mission

Scott D. Barthelmy

Proceedings Volume 5165, X-Ray and Gamma-Ray Instrumentation for Astronomy XIII; (2004) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.506779
Event: Optical Science and Technology, SPIE's 48th Annual Meeting, 2003, San Diego, California, United States

Abstract

The Burst Alert telescope (BAT) is one of 3 instruments on the Swift MIDEX spacecraft to study gamma-ray bursts (GRBs). The BAT instrument is the instrument that first detects the GRB and localizes the burst direction to an accuracy of 1-4 arcmin within 20 sec after the start of the event. These locations cause the spacecraft to autonomously slew to point the two narrow-FOV instruments at the burst location within 20-70 sec to make follow-up x-ray and optical observations. BAT is a wide-FOV coded-aperture instrument with a CdZnTe detector plane. The detector plane is composed of 32,768 pieces of CdZnTe (4x4x2mm), and the coded-aperture mask is composed of ~52,000 pieces of lead (5x5x1mm) with a 1-m separation between mask and detector plane. The BAT operates over the 15-150 keV energy range with ~6 keV resolution, a sensitivity of 0.2 ph/cm²-sec, and a 1.4 sr (half-coded) FOV. We expect to detect >100 GRBs/yr for a 2-year mission. The BAT also performs an all-sky hard x-ray survey with a sensitivity of ~2 mCrab (systematic limit) and as a hard x-ray transient monitor.

Citation Download Citation

Scott D. Barthelmy "The burst Alert Telescope (BAT) on the Swift MIDEX mission", Proc. SPIE 5165, X-Ray and Gamma-Ray Instrumentation for Astronomy XIII, (3 February 2004); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.506779

ACCESS THE FULL ARTICLE

INSTITUTIONAL
Select your institution to access the SPIE Digital Library.

SELECT YOUR INSTITUTION

PERSONAL
Sign in with your SPIE account to access your personal subscriptions or to use specific features such as save to my library, sign up for alerts, save searches, etc.

PERSONAL SIGN IN

No SPIE Account? Create one

PURCHASE THIS CONTENT

SUBSCRIBE TO DIGITAL LIBRARY

50 downloads per 1-year subscription

Members: $195

Non-members: $335 ADD TO CART

25 downloads per 1 - year subscription

Members: $145

Non-members: $250 ADD TO CART

PURCHASE SINGLE ARTICLE

Includes PDF, HTML & Video, when available