<title>In-flight performance and calibration of the Chandra high-resolution camera spectroscopic readout (HRC-S)</title>

Abstract

The High Resolution Camera (HRC) is one of two focal plane instruments on the NASA Chandra X-ray Observatory which was successfully launched on July 23, 1999. The Chandra X-ray Observatory was designed to perform high resolution spectroscopy and imaging in the X-ray band of 0.07 to 10 keV. The HRC instrument consists of two detectors, HRC-I for imaging and HRC-S for spectroscopy. Each HRC detector consists of a thin aluminized polyimide blocking filter, a chevron pair of microchannel plates and a crossed grid charge readout. The HRC-I is an approximately 100 X 100 mm detector optimized for high resolution imaging and timing, the HRC-S is an approximately 20 X 300 detector optimized to function as the readout for the Low Energy Transmission Grating. In this paper we discuss the in-flight performance of the HRC-S, and present preliminary analysis of flight calibration data and compare it with the results of the ground calibration and pre-flight predictions. In particular we will compare ground data and in-flight data on detector background, quantum efficiency, spatial resolution, pulse height resolution, and point spread response function.