HEASARC Status and Plans

							                      HETE-2




April 12 - 13, 2006    Mike Corcoran
HEASARC Users Group
                                                     Overview
The High Energy Transient Explorer (HETE-2) is a “University-Class” (small) scientific satellite
designed to detect and localize gamma-ray bursts. The coordinates of GRBs detected by HETE are
distributed to interested ground-based observers within seconds of burst detection, thereby allowing
detailed observations of the initial phases of GRBs. Follow-on to HETE (lost just after launch, Nov
1996). Hete-2 Launched Oct 9, 2000
•Instruments:
      –   French Gamma Telescope (FREGATE):
            •   Instrument type                NaI(TI); cleaved
            •   Energy Range                   6 to 400 keV
            •   Timing Resolution              10 microseconds
            •   Effective Area                 120 cm2
            •   Sensitivity (10 sigma)         3x10-8 erg cm-2s-1, over 8 keV-1 MeV
            •   Field of View                  3 steradians
      –   Wide Field X-ray Monitor (WXM; Riken/LANL)
            •   Instrument type                Coded Mask with Position Sensitive Proportional Counter
            •   Energy Range                   2 to 25 keV
            •   Timing Resolution              1 ms
            •   Sensitivity (10 sigma)         ~8x10 -9 erg cm -2s -1 over the 2-10 keV range
            •   Field of View                  1.6 steradians (FWZM)
            •   Angular resolution             +-11 arcmin (normal incidence, 8 keV)
      –   Soft X-ray Camera (SXC; MIT/MKI)
            •   Energy Range:      500 eV to 14 keV
            •   Timing Resolution: 1.2 s
            •   Field of View: 0.91 sr
            •   Focal Plane scale: 33" per CCD pixel
            •   Burst Sensitivity: (4 sigma) 0.47 cts cm-2 s-1
            •   Steady source Sensitivity: (4 sigma) ~700 mCrab t -1/2
            •   Localization Precision: 80" (systematic + statistical) 90% conf limits


April 12 - 13, 2006                                            Mike Corcoran
HEASARC Users Group
                      Mission Status
• All instruments (Fregate, WXM & SXC) currently operating
  nominally; problems early on
• Since last HUG meeting (2004):
    – 27 refereed publications in ADS
    – 34 bursts (24 Fregate triggers, 4 WXM triggers, 6 Ground Analysis)
    – GRB050709: first optical afterglow of a short-hard burst associated with
      a late-type galaxy at z=0.16. “Solved mystery of short-hard bursts”




                                                 See Villasenor et al., 2005, Nature 437, 855

April 12 - 13, 2006              Mike Corcoran
HEASARC Users Group
                      Archive Status
HEASARC is the primary archive for HETE-2
    – ~260 GB of data in IPP format - optimized for efficient
      burst analysis (not long-term archive)
    – Fregate 3-band lightcurves for all available GRBs
    – XSPEC-compatible spectra and response matrices
      for Fregate bursts
    – Hete2help: 3 contacts since 2000
    – Data transfer to community ~700 MB (mostly in 2005)



April 12 - 13, 2006       Mike Corcoran
HEASARC Users Group
                      HETE2 Metadata
• Browse tables:
    – hete2gcn: searchable list of all HETE2 gcn
      notices with links to data
    – hete2grb: searchable list of all HETE2 bursts
      with links to data and to MIT burst pages
    – hete2tl: searchable HETE2 timeline with data
      links
• xtime: hete2 pointing timeline (like hete2tl)

April 12 - 13, 2006       Mike Corcoran
HEASARC Users Group
                 Website & Software
• HEASARC Hete2 website contains
  general information about Hete2, links to
  burst web pages
• /FTP/hete2/ops contains downloadable
  software (solaris binaries and perl/c-shell
  scripts): Not user friendly



April 12 - 13, 2006    Mike Corcoran
HEASARC Users Group
                      Future status
• HETE-2 not involved in current senior
  review round
• NASA 07 budget request




April 12 - 13, 2006      Mike Corcoran
HEASARC Users Group
                      Future Plans
• MIT funding runs out in Jun 06; operations
  authorized until Sep 06
• HEASARC will
    – maintain archive of all IPP data
    – maintain mirror of MIT HETE2 website
    – transfer all processing/analysis software from MIT to
      HEASARC for download
    – maintain calibration data
    – Continue to investigate conversion of data into
      standard format on a best-effort basis

April 12 - 13, 2006       Mike Corcoran
HEASARC Users Group
                      Lessons Learned
• Primary GRB science goals achieved/exceeded in an
  exceptionally low-cost mission (<$600K yr-1 for DA)
• “Triage decision”: Insufficient funds were provided to PI
  team to undertake secondary (non-GRB) science
  analyses
• Small missions often have to decide between main
  mission science vs. long-term archiving: Main mission
  science (usually) wins




April 12 - 13, 2006        Mike Corcoran
HEASARC Users Group
             Lessons Learned (cont)
• Producing data in standard formats readable by software
  outside of mission-developed tools is essential for
  broader use.
• Projects should incorporate long-term archive plans in
  their PDMP to maximize long-term usefulness
• Adherence to data standards (FITS) from outset is
  important for long-term archiving & data ease-of-use, but
  there are (some) mission costs.
• Convert telemetry to FITS!
• Adherence to software standards is important too (but
  this isn’t free either)

April 12 - 13, 2006      Mike Corcoran
HEASARC Users Group
       How the HEASARC can Help
The HEASARC helps minimize effort for small
  projects to standardize data:
• enabling easy creation/verification of FITS files
  (cfitsio)
• providing well-defined, easy to understand, easy
  to find data standards (“OGIP Standards”)
• Expandable software standards (HEASoft)
• Calibration infrastructure (CALDB)
Even small missions can find “data attractiveness”
April 12 - 13, 2006   Mike Corcoran
HEASARC Users Group