Verifying the IPN accuracy with the Bursting Pulsar and SGR1806-20

Journal Article · Sat May 16 00:00:00 EDT 1998 · AIP Conference Proceedings

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/1.55303· OSTI ID:21185777

Hurley, K ^[1]; Kouveliotou, C ^[2]; Fishman, G; Meegan, C ^[3]; Briggs, M ^[4]; Cline, T ^[5]; Kommers, J ^[6]; Boer, M ^[7]

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1. UC Berkeley Space Sciences Laboratory, Berkeley, California 94720-7450 (United States)
2. NASA Marshall Space Flight Center--Universities Space Research Association, Huntsville, Alabama 35812 (United States)
3. NASA Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, Alabama 35812 (United States)
4. University of Alabama in Huntsville, Huntsville, Alabama 35899 (United States)
5. NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Maryland 20771 (United States)
6. MIT Center for Space Research, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139-4307 (United States)
7. Centre d'Etude Spatiale des Rayonnements, 31029 Toulouse Cedex (France)

The well-known positions of the Bursting Pulsar (GROJ1744-28) and the soft gamma repeater SGR1806-20 represent 'space truth' data (the equivalent of 'ground truth' data in remote sensing) which can be used to verify the accuracy of the IPN location technique. About 500 bursts from GROJ1744-28, and several dozen bursts from SGR1806-20, have been observed jointly by BATSE and Ulysses. Using these data, we have been able to verify the timing accuracy of the Ulysses data in numerous spacecraft and experiment operating modes, the cross-correlation technique used to compare the light curves of gamma-ray bursts from different spacecraft, and the method used to derive burst positions by triangulation. We show that the uncertainties in the triangulation technique are dominated by count rate statistics, and that no systematic errors exist whose magnitude is comparable to the statistical errors.

• OSTI ID: 21185777
• Journal Information: AIP Conference Proceedings, Vol. 428, Issue 1; Conference: 4. Huntsville gamma-ray burst symposium, Huntsville, AL (United States), 15-20 Sep 1997; Other Information: DOI: 10.1063/1.55303; (c) 1998 American Institute of Physics; Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 0094-243X
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
ACCURACY
ASTROPHYSICS
COMPARATIVE EVALUATIONS
CORRELATIONS
COSMIC GAMMA BURSTS
COSMIC GAMMA SOURCES
COSMIC PHOTONS
COSMIC RAY DETECTION
COUNTING RATES
ERRORS
GAMMA DETECTION
PHOTOMETRY
PULSARS
SPACE VEHICLES
STATISTICS
TELEMETRY