A new determination of the INTEGRAL/IBIS point source location accuracy

Scaringi, S., Bird, A.J., Hill, A.B., Clark, D.J., McBride, V.A., Dean, A.J., Bazzano, A., Natalucci, L. and Stephen, J.B. (2010) A new determination of the INTEGRAL/IBIS point source location accuracy. Astronomy & Astrophysics. (doi:10.1051/0004-6361/201014209). (In Press)

Abstract

Aims: To determine the Point Source Location Accuracy (PSLA) for the INTEGRAL/IBIS telescope based on analysis of archival in-flight data.

Methods: Over 40000 individual pointings (science windows) of INTEGRAL/IBIS data were analysed using the latest Off-line Science Analysis software, version 7.0. Reconstructed source positions were then compared against the most accurate positions available, determined from focusing X-ray telescopes. Since the PSLA is a strong function of source detection significance, the offsets from true
position were histogrammed against significance, so that the 90% confidence limits could be determined. This has been done for both sources in the fully coded field of view (FCFOV) and partially coded field of view (PCFOV).

Results: The PSLA is found to have improved significantly since values derived from early mission data and software for both FCFOV and PCFOV.

Conclusions: This result has implications for observers executing follow-up programs on IBIS sources since the sky area to be searched is reduced by >50% in some cases.

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Contributors

Author: A.J. Bird

Author: A.B. Hill

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