The Swift BAT Instrument: Performance and Results
Abstract
In this talk I will discuss the Burst Alert Telescope BAT on the Swift spacecraft Swift is a dedicated mission for detecting gamma-ray bursts and performing rapid follow-up in the x-ray and optical wavelength bands This is possible because the BAT instrument can provide a burst location to within 3 arcmin within 20 seconds of the burst detection The GRB Coordinates Network distributes the burst location immediately to observers and robotic telescopes around the world In addition the BAT instrument with its wide field-of-view 2 sr is performing an extensive all-sky survey between 15 - 350 keV including monitoring over 300 hard x-ray sources I will describe the BAT instrument and its capabilities - both for bursts and surveys Bursts are detected either by rate triggers or image triggers in four energy bands The surveys cover 70 of the sky each day and have a 1 sigma sentivity of 4 mCrabs
- Publication:
-
36th COSPAR Scientific Assembly
- Pub Date:
- 2006
- Bibcode:
- 2006cosp...36.1834B