1. April 12 - 13, 2006 HEASARC Users Group Mike Corcoran HETE-2

2. April 12 - 13, 2006 HEASARC Users Group Mike Corcoran Overview The High Energy Transient Explorer (HETE-2) is a “University-Class” (small) scientific satellite designed to detect and localize gamma-ray bursts. The coordinates of GRBs detected by HETE are distributed to interested ground-based observers within seconds of burst detection, thereby allowing detailed observations of the initial phases of GRBs. Follow-on to HETE (lost just after launch, Nov 1996). Hete-2 Launched Oct 9, 2000 Instruments : –French Gamma Telescope (FREGATE): Instrument type NaI(TI); cleaved Energy Range 6 to 400 keV Timing Resolution 10 microseconds Effective Area 120 cm2 Sensitivity (10 sigma) 3x10-8 erg cm-2s-1, over 8 keV-1 MeV Field of View 3 steradians –Wide Field X-ray Monitor (WXM; Riken/LANL) Instrument type Coded Mask with Position Sensitive Proportional Counter Energy Range 2 to 25 keV Timing Resolution 1 ms Sensitivity (10 sigma) ~8x10 -9 erg cm -2s -1 over the 2-10 keV range Field of View 1.6 steradians (FWZM) Angular resolution +-11 arcmin (normal incidence, 8 keV) –Soft X-ray Camera (SXC; MIT/MKI) Energy Range: 500 eV to 14 keV Timing Resolution: 1.2 s Field of View: 0.91 sr Focal Plane scale: 33" per CCD pixel Burst Sensitivity: (4 sigma) 0.47 cts cm-2 s-1 Steady source Sensitivity: (4 sigma) ~700 mCrab t -1/2 Localization Precision: 80" (systematic + statistical) 90% conf limits

3. April 12 - 13, 2006 HEASARC Users Group Mike Corcoran Mission Status All instruments (Fregate, WXM & SXC) currently operating nominally; problems early on Since last HUG meeting (2004): –27 refereed publications in ADS –34 bursts (24 Fregate triggers, 4 WXM triggers, 6 Ground Analysis) –GRB050709: first optical afterglow of a short-hard burst associated with a late-type galaxy at z=0.16. “Solved mystery of short-hard bursts” See Villasenor et al., 2005, Nature 437, 855

4. April 12 - 13, 2006 HEASARC Users Group Mike Corcoran Archive Status HEASARC is the primary archive for HETE-2 –~260 GB of data in IPP format - optimized for efficient burst analysis (not long-term archive) –Fregate 3-band lightcurves for all available GRBs –XSPEC-compatible spectra and response matrices for Fregate bursts –Hete2help: 3 contacts since 2000 –Data transfer to community ~700 MB (mostly in 2005)

5. April 12 - 13, 2006 HEASARC Users Group Mike Corcoran HETE2 Metadata Browse tables: – hete2gcn: searchable list of all HETE2 gcn notices with links to data –hete2grb: searchable list of all HETE2 bursts with links to data and to MIT burst pages –hete2tl: searchable HETE2 timeline with data links xtime: hete2 pointing timeline (like hete2tl)

6. April 12 - 13, 2006 HEASARC Users Group Mike Corcoran Website & Software HEASARC Hete2 website contains general information about Hete2, links to burst web pages /FTP/hete2/ops contains downloadable software (solaris binaries and perl/c-shell scripts): Not user friendly

7. April 12 - 13, 2006 HEASARC Users Group Mike Corcoran Future status HETE-2 not involved in current senior review round NASA 07 budget request

8. April 12 - 13, 2006 HEASARC Users Group Mike Corcoran Future Plans MIT funding runs out in Jun 06; operations authorized until Sep 06 HEASARC will – maintain archive of all IPP data – maintain mirror of MIT HETE2 website – transfer all processing/analysis software from MIT to HEASARC for download – maintain calibration data – Continue to investigate conversion of data into standard format on a best-effort basis

9. April 12 - 13, 2006 HEASARC Users Group Mike Corcoran Lessons Learned Primary GRB science goals achieved/exceeded in an exceptionally low-cost mission (<$600K yr -1 for DA) “Triage decision”: Insufficient funds were provided to PI team to undertake secondary (non-GRB) science analyses Small missions often have to decide between main mission science vs. long-term archiving: Main mission science (usually) wins

10. April 12 - 13, 2006 HEASARC Users Group Mike Corcoran Lessons Learned (cont) Producing data in standard formats readable by software outside of mission-developed tools is essential for broader use. Projects should incorporate long-term archive plans in their PDMP to maximize long-term usefulness Adherence to data standards (FITS) from outset is important for long-term archiving & data ease-of-use, but there are (some) mission costs. Convert telemetry to FITS! Adherence to software standards is important too (but this isn’t free either)

11. April 12 - 13, 2006 HEASARC Users Group Mike Corcoran How the HEASARC can Help The HEASARC helps minimize effort for small projects to standardize data: enabling easy creation/verification of FITS files (cfitsio) providing well-defined, easy to understand, easy to find data standards (“OGIP Standards”) Expandable software standards (HEASoft) Calibration infrastructure (CALDB) Even small missions can find “data attractiveness”