In-flight performance of pulse-processing system of the ASTRO-H/Hitomi soft x-ray spectrometer
Tsujimoto, Masahiro; Eckart, Megan E.; Leutenegger, Maurice A.; Tashiro, Makoto S.; Terada, Yukikatsu; Mitsuda, Kazuhisa; Chiao, Meng P.; Ishisaki, Yoshitaka; Koyama, Shu; Sawada, Makoto; Seta, Hiromi; Yamada, Shinya; Watanabe, Tomomi; Boyce, Kevin R.; Kilbourne, Caroline Anne; Takeda, Sawako; Porter, Frederick Scott; Kato, Yuka
Japan, United States
Abstract
We summarize results of the initial in-orbit performance of the pulse shape processor (PSP) of the soft x-ray spectrometer instrument onboard ASTRO-H (Hitomi). Event formats, kind of telemetry, and the pulse-processing parameters are described, and the parameter settings in orbit are listed. The PSP was powered-on 2 days after launch, and the event threshold was lowered in orbit. The PSP worked fine in orbit, and there was neither memory error nor SpaceWire communication error until the break-up of spacecraft. Time assignment, electrical crosstalk, and the event screening criteria are studied. It is confirmed that the event processing rate at 100% central processing unit load is ∼200 c / s / array, compliant with the requirement on the PSP.