The GLAST burst monitor
/ Authors
A. von Kienlin, C. Meegan, G. Lichti, N. Bhat, M. Briggs, V. Connaughton, R. Diehl, G. Fishman, J. Greiner, A. Hoover
and 7 more authors
R. Kippen, C. Kouveliotou, W. Paciesas, R. Preece, V. Schoenfelder, H. Steinle, R. Wilson
/ Abstract
The next large NASA mission in the field of gamma-ray astronomy, GLAST, is scheduled for launch in 2007. Aside from the main instrument LAT (Large-Area Telescope), a gamma-ray telescope for the energy range between 20 MeV and > 100GeV, a secondary instrument, the GLAST burst monitor (GBM), is foreseen. With this monitor one of the key scientific objectives of the mission, the determination of the high-energy behaviour of gamma-ray bursts and transients can be ensured. Its task is to increase the detection rate of gamma-ray bursts for the LAT and to extend the energy range to lower energies (from ~10 keV to ~30 MeV). It will provide real-time burst locations over a wide FoV with sufficient accuracy to allow repointing the GLAST spacecraft. Time-resolved spectra of many bursts recorded with LAT and the burst monitor will allow the investigation of the relation between the keV and the MeV-GeV emission from GRBs over unprecedented seven decades of energy. This will help to advance our understanding of the mechanisms by which gamma-rays are generated in gamma-ray bursts
Journal: SPIE Astronomical Telescopes + Instrumentation
DOI: 10.1117/12.552913