NuSTAR observatory operations and data analysis
Abstract
We present an overview of the observatory operations and science data analysis for the Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array (NuSTAR) mission. Launched in June 2012, NuSTAR is the first focusing high energy (3-79 keV) X-ray observatory. The NuSTAR project is led by the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) with mission operations managed by the Space Sciences Laboratory (SSL) at the University of California, Berkeley. NuSTAR science data are processed automatically at the Science Operations Center (SOC) at Caltech, making use of the NuSTAR Data Analysis Software package (NuSTARDAS), jointly developed by the ASI Science Data Center (ASDC, Italy) and Caltech. Calibrated data from completed observations are made publicly available at NASA's High Energy Astrophysics Science Archive Center (HEASARC) at the Goddard Space Flight Center and at ASDC. The NuSTARDAS package is integrated into the multi-mission HEASoft X-ray data analysis software package, and NuSTAR calibration data are now part of the HEASARC Calibration Database. NuSTAR will complete its primary mission phase in 2014 and opportunities for the community to propose for observing time will become available through a guest investigator program as well as joint observing proposals with the XMM-Newton and Chandra observatories.
- Publication:
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American Astronomical Society Meeting Abstracts #223
- Pub Date:
- January 2014
- Bibcode:
- 2014AAS...22343805F