Wide-Field Gamma-Spectrometer BDRG: GRB Monitor On-Board the Lomonosov Mission

• DOI: 10.1007/s11214-017-0442-9
• Publication Date: 2017-11-30T08:12:10Z
• Authors: S. I. Svertilov; M. I. Panasyuk; V. V. Bogomolov; A. M. Amelushkin; V. O. Barinova; V. I. Galkin; A. F. Iyudin; E. A. Kuznetsova; A. V. Prokhorov; V. L. Petrov; G. V. Rozhkov; I. V. Yashin; E. S. Gorbovskoy; V. M. Lipunov; I. H. Park; S. Jeong; M. B. Kim
• Keywords: 0103 physical sciences; 01 natural sciences; 7. Clean energy

The study of GRB prompt emissions (PE) is one of the main goals of the Lomonosov space mission. The payloads of the GRB monitor (BDRG) with the wide-field optical cameras (SHOK) and the ultra-fast flash observatory (UFFO) onboard the Lomonosov satellite are intended for the observation of GRBs, and in particular, their prompt emissions. The BDRG gamma-ray spectrometer is designed to obtain the temporal and spectral information of GRBs in the energy range of 10–3000 keV as well as to provide GRB triggers on several time scales (10 ms, 1 s and 20 s) for ground and space telescopes, including the UFFO and SHOK. The BDRG instrument consists of three identical detector boxes with axes shifted by $90^{\circ}$ from each other. This configuration allows us to localize a GRB source in the sky with an accuracy of $\sim 2^{\circ}$ . Each BDRG box contains a phoswich NaI(Tl)/CsI(Tl) scintillator detector. A thick CsI(Tl) crystal in size of $\varnothing 130 \times 17~\mbox{mm}$ is placed underneath the NaI(Tl) as an active shield in the soft energy range and as the main detector in the hard energy range. The ratio of the CsI(Tl) to NaI(Tl) event rates at varying energies can be employed as an independent metric to distinguish legitimate GRB signals from false positives originating from electrons in near-Earth vicinities. The data from three detectors are collected in a BA BDRG information unit, which generates a GRB trigger and a set of data frames in output format. The scientific data output is $\sim 500$ Mb per day, including $\sim 180$ Mb of continuous data for events with durations in excess of 100 ms for 16 channels in each detector, detailed energy spectra, and sets of frames with $\sim 5$ Mb of detailed information for each burst-like event. A number of pre-flight tests including those for the trigger algorithm and calibration were carried out to confirm the reliability of the BDRG for operation in space.