Dynamic flat-fielding of BATSE data and the BATSE all sky survey
Dynamic flat-fielding of BATSE data and the BATSE all sky survey
This thesis describes developments made by Matthew Westmore that will further the Compton Gamma Ray Observatory’s (CGRO) contribution to high energy astrophysics with the production of the first all sky survey in the 25-1000 keV band. The BATSE instrument served as CGRO’s all sky survey viewing the entire sky continuously for the 9 year CGRO mission. Earth occultation techniques have been applied to the BATSE database since launch to study transient and steady sources. The standard occultation techniques suffer from two main limitations; the background problem and the interference problem. The interaction of particles from the cosmic diffuse background, atmospheric albedo emission, and cosmic ray protons provide the dominant sources of noise. The response of the BATSE detectors to these sources is further complicated by orbital modulation. These slowly varying components to the BATSE background counting rates introduce systemic uncertainties and limit the sensitivity. Since the BATSE detectors are uncollimated and the Earth’s limb is extended, the Earth occulation techniques suffer from the effects of interfering sources. This again introduces systemic uncertainties and limits the sensitivity. This thesis details work completed to address these two limitations so that the BATSE database may be fully exploited.
The slowly varying background noise components from the detector counting rates have been removed wit the use of particle physics-based Monte-Carlo simulations. Semi-empirical fitting to the data to determine the background model parameters is not adequate. A fully physical computational model of the various sources of background has been developed over the last decade in Southampton and provides the desired level of accuracy. The author has been involved in adapting this technique to remove the background levels from the raw detector counting rates before carrying out further analysis. This process is known as dynamic flat-fielding.
University of Southampton
Westmore, Matthew Joseph
81ad30c5-044d-47cc-9523-4c4e5dea922f
2002
Westmore, Matthew Joseph
81ad30c5-044d-47cc-9523-4c4e5dea922f
Westmore, Matthew Joseph
(2002)
Dynamic flat-fielding of BATSE data and the BATSE all sky survey.
University of Southampton, Doctoral Thesis.
Record type:
Thesis
(Doctoral)
Abstract
This thesis describes developments made by Matthew Westmore that will further the Compton Gamma Ray Observatory’s (CGRO) contribution to high energy astrophysics with the production of the first all sky survey in the 25-1000 keV band. The BATSE instrument served as CGRO’s all sky survey viewing the entire sky continuously for the 9 year CGRO mission. Earth occultation techniques have been applied to the BATSE database since launch to study transient and steady sources. The standard occultation techniques suffer from two main limitations; the background problem and the interference problem. The interaction of particles from the cosmic diffuse background, atmospheric albedo emission, and cosmic ray protons provide the dominant sources of noise. The response of the BATSE detectors to these sources is further complicated by orbital modulation. These slowly varying components to the BATSE background counting rates introduce systemic uncertainties and limit the sensitivity. Since the BATSE detectors are uncollimated and the Earth’s limb is extended, the Earth occulation techniques suffer from the effects of interfering sources. This again introduces systemic uncertainties and limits the sensitivity. This thesis details work completed to address these two limitations so that the BATSE database may be fully exploited.
The slowly varying background noise components from the detector counting rates have been removed wit the use of particle physics-based Monte-Carlo simulations. Semi-empirical fitting to the data to determine the background model parameters is not adequate. A fully physical computational model of the various sources of background has been developed over the last decade in Southampton and provides the desired level of accuracy. The author has been involved in adapting this technique to remove the background levels from the raw detector counting rates before carrying out further analysis. This process is known as dynamic flat-fielding.
Text
891239.pdf
- Version of Record
More information
Published date: 2002
Identifiers
Local EPrints ID: 464907
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/464907
PURE UUID: a80953ea-5620-45e5-b07a-066f3b2bf5e9
Catalogue record
Date deposited: 05 Jul 2022 00:09
Last modified: 16 Mar 2024 19:49
Export record
Contributors
Author:
Matthew Joseph Westmore
Download statistics
Downloads from ePrints over the past year. Other digital versions may also be available to download e.g. from the publisher's website.
View more statistics