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HRC-S Degap Corrections

Introduction | Information

November 2005


Introduction

The LETGS is primarily used in conjunction with the spectroscopic array, the HRC-S. The HRC-S consists of 3 MCPs, with 1513 wires along the dispersion direction (the V-axis) and 121 wires along the cross-dispersion direction (the U-axis) with a wire pitch of 0.2057 mm. An amplifier taps into this crossed grid at every eighth wire, with the result that there are 190 and 16 ``taps'' along the V and U axes respectively. The charge cloud generated by an incoming photon at the base of the MCP is read out by these amplifiers, and the position of the event is determined using the so-called ``three-tap algorithm''. The tap with the strongest signal is designated as the site of the event, and the position is further refined by combining the signal from this amplifier, say Ai, with those from the adjacent taps to determine the fine position

	fp = (Ai+1-Ai-1) / (Ai+1+Ai+Ai-1)
However, because charge in taps beyond the nearest ones is uncollected, this results in gaps near the edge of the taps where there will be a deficit of events. Note that unlike telescope vignetting, pileup, or Quantum Efficiency (QE), this is not lossy (i.e., the photons are not lost; they are simply mispositioned) and can be deterministically corrected with a suitably constructed degapping algorithm.

The degapping algorithm used for Chandra data analysis was derived by fitting symmetric 5th-order polynomials around tap center, to lab data. The polynomial coefficients were stored in a FITS file in the CALDB and were used by the CIAO tool hrc_process_events to correct the RAW positions of the photons. The degap solution obtained from these polynomial fits still had some defects, such as a 1-pixel drop-off between taps, invalid corrections due to the assumed symmetry of the degapping, etc. These errors contribute to the observed non-linearities in the LETGS+HRC-S dispersion relation. In order to provide flexibility in updating the degap, the storage mechanism in the CALDB was changed to that of a lookup table where the required correction is tabulated as a function of the AMP_SF value for each RAW coordinate position (see Juda 2005).

The HRC-S poses some unique practical difficulties in the determination of degapping solutions using on-orbit data. Due to an uncorrectable error in the onboard electronics, the anticoincidence counter has been turned ineffective, and the telemetered data contain a large number of particle events, which strongly affects the pattern of the amplifier signals, and adversely affects the degapping solution. These background events are reduced, but never entirely eliminated, using various filtering steps during analysis. Therefore, degapping solutions are strongly tied to the filtering applied to the data. Further, the analysis naturally depends on photons dispersed by the LETGS, whose numbers depend on the shape of the source spectrum and the telescope effective area, and hence there are less data available on the outer plates. It is imperative that the true distribution of the photons across a tap be known exactly, or else the degap solution will be subject to large systematic errors.

We have derived corrections to the wavelength scale based on analysis of sources with strong line emission (Chung et al. 2005). This was first made available via a Perl script corrlam and has now been incorporated directly into the degap solution (Kashyap et al. 2005). The new degap, which is the polynomial solution modified by corrections derived from line-emission data, is available from CALDB 3.2.0 onwards in the file
$CALDB/data/chandra/hrc/bcf/gaplookup/hrcsD1999-07-22gaplookupN0002.fits
This solution improves the performance of the LETGS significantly, but does not account fully for all the systematic errors in the dispersion relation. The rms deviation of the wavelength differences drop from 0.014 Å (0.010 Å over just the central plate) prior to the correction, to 0.010 Å (0.006 Å over the central plate).

We have also developed an empirical method to determine the degap coefficients from continuum sources (Kashyap et al. 2003, 2004). This solution is undergoing testing and modification to handle the dispersion derived from line emission as above, prior to being made available for general use.

Information

The following is a list of memos and papers (in chronological order) on the HRC event positions and degapping solution in general, and on the LETGS+HRC-S degapping and dispersion non-linearities in particular.

HRC Position Logic, M. Juda, CXC Memo, July 1996
 
HRC Degapping Corrections, M. Juda, CXC Memo, Aug 1998
 
Degap as a Transformation of Probability Distribution Problem, A. Kenter, et al., CXC Memo, Mar 1999
 
Degap Corrections for HRC-I and HRC-S detectors, A. Kenter, et al., CXC Memo, Oct 1999
 
Improving Chandra High Resolution Camera event positions via corrections to crossed-grid charge detector signals, M. Juda, et al., Proc. SPIE 4140, 155, 2000
 
The HRC Degapping Procedure, A. Kenter, Proc. of the Chandra Calibration Workshop, 2002
 
Imaging characteristics affecting the LETGS , V. Kashyap, et al., Proc. of the Chandra Calibration Workshop, 2002
 
Non-Linearities in the HRC-S Detector, R.L.J. van der Meer, et al., Proc. of the Chandra Calibration Workshop, 2002
 
Calibration and Science Requirements for the LETGS, J.J. Drake, et al., Proc. of the Chandra Calibration Workshop, 2002
 
Characterizing nonlinearities in the Chandra LETGS + HRC-S dispersion relation S.M. Chung, et al., Proc. SPIE 5165, 518, 2003
 
Degap Corrections for HRC-S Grating Observations, V.L. Kashyap, et al., Proc. of the Chandra Calibration Workshop, 2003
 
Amplifier Mismatch as a Possible Source of HRC Event Position Distortions, M. Juda, Proc. of the Chandra Calibration Workshop, 2003
 
The LETGS Dispersion Relation and the Accuracy of Chandra Velocity Studies, J. Drake, et al., Proc. of the Chandra Calibration Workshop, 2003
 
Characterizing Non-linearities in the Chandra LETG+HRC-S Dispersion Relation, S.M. Chung, et al., Proc. of the Chandra Calibration Workshop, 2003
 
Update on the Non-Linearities in the Chandra LETG/HRC-S Dispersion Relation, S.M. Chung, et al., Proc. SPIE 5488-62, 2004
 
Chandra HRC-S Degapping Corrections, V.L. Kashyap, et al., Proc. SPIE 5488-71, 2004
 
Correcting the Non-Linearities of the LETG+HRC-S Dispersion Relation S.M. Chung, J. Drake, P. Ratzlaff, V. Kashyap, 2005, http://cxc.harvard.edu/cal/Letg/Corrlam/
 
An Improved HRC-I Degap, M. Juda, 2005, Proc. of the Chandra Calibration Workshop, 2005
 
HRC-S Degap and Wavelength Corrections, V. Kashyap, S.M. Chung, J. Drake, P. Ratzlaff, 2005, Proc. of the Chandra Calibration Workshop, 2005
 

Introduction | Information


Contact Vinay Kashyap (vkashyap(at)cfa.harvard.edu) for further information.

Last modified: 02/17/12





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