The scattered solar X-ray background of the ROSAT PSPC

Abstract

view Abstract Citations (82) References (25) Co-Reads Similar Papers Volume Content Graphics Metrics Export Citation NASA/ADS The Scattered Solar X-Ray Background of the ROSAT PSPC Snowden, S. L. ; Freyberg, M. J. Abstract A model for accurately reproducing the light curves and spectra of the scattered solar X-ray background (SB) affecting ROSAT XRT/PSPC pointed observations is presented and demonstrated. This procedure, the modeling and subtraction of the SB, is vital for analysis of all observations of extended X-ray objects and the soft X-ray diffuse background where noncosmic background constituents must be precisely known. At the orbital altitude of ROSAT, about 550 km, and the zenith angles at which the XRT/PSPC observers, 97 deg or less, the scattering is dominated by atomic oxygen with Thomson-scattered X-rays in the 1/4 keV band and oxygen K-alpha fluorescently scattered X-rays at 0.54 keV. This produces field-of-view-integrated minimum count rates in the 0.1-1.0 keV band of about 0.25 counts/s during dayside observations with excursions to about 40 counts/s or more in particularly bad geometries. Typical cosmic background count rates in the same band range from 3 to 12 counts/s, demonstrating the need for the procedure described here. Publication: The Astrophysical Journal Pub Date: February 1993 DOI: 10.1086/172289 Bibcode: 1993ApJ...404..403S Keywords: Background Radiation; Rosat Mission; Solar X-Rays; X Ray Scattering; Absorption Cross Sections; Light Curve; Radiative Transfer; Stellar Models; Thomson Scattering; Solar Physics; ARTIFICIAL SATELLITES; SPACE PROBES; COSMOLOGY: DIFFUSE RADIATION; INSTRUMENTATION: SPECTROGRAPHS; SUN: X-RAYS; GAMMA RAYS full text sources ADS | data products SIMBAD (2)