Ratemeters Analysis

The AGILE Scientific Ratemeter files contain the photon counts recorded by every AGILE instrument:

• The Gamma-Ray Imaging Detector (GRID), with photon energy >50 MeV.

• The Mini-Calorimeter (MCAL), energy band [0.4 - 100] MeV.

• The SuperAGILE (SA), energy band [18 - 60] keV.

• The 5 panels of the Anti-Coincidence System:

  • The Top panel (AC0), energy band [50 - 200] keV.

  • The 4 lateral panels (AC1, AC2, AC3, AC4), energy band [80 - 200] keV.

The counts recorded are integrated in the energy range of the detector and in time bins of fixed width of 1.024 s, with the exception of the SuperAGILE ratemeters which use bins of 0.512 s.

The ratemeter files (the so-called “3913” files) are provided in a compressed FITS Format optimized for data download from the satellite. One file was produced for every satellite contact.

Agilepy implements a AGRatemeters class that reads the ratemeters files and extract the Ratemeters Light Curves. The Light Curves can be used to check for transient phenomena, and if the Burst Onest Time (T0) of a Burst is provided, the significance and duration of the Burst can be estimated.

The Analysis of the Scientific Ratemeters follows these general steps:

1. Prepare a YAML configuration file for AGRatemeters. You can do it manually or by using AGRatemeters.getConfiguration().

2. Define a AGRatemeters object, and read the 3913 file with AGRatemeters.readRatemeters().

3. You can plot the Light Curve with the AGRatemeters.plotRatemeters() function, perform a simple Aperture Photometry analysis with AGRatemeters.analyseSignal(), perform a basic estimation of the burst duration with AGRatemeters.estimateDuration().

Note

Note on Detectors. Each instrument is pointed in a different direction. In particular, AC4 is always pointed towards the Sun.

The Light Curves produced by the AGRatemeters class include 3 columns:

• OBT: detection time in AGILE seconds.

• COUNTS: counts measured.

• COUNTS_D: counts de-trended with a FFT (Fast Fourier Transform) algorithm to remove background modulation due to the orbital motion and spinning of the satellite.

Configuration

We describe here the parameters of the configuration file section by section.

Output

These parameters are common to all Agilepy classes.

Option	Type	Default	Required	Description
outdir	string		yes	Output Directory.
filenameprefix	string	ratemters_product	no	Prefix for files.
sourcename	string	rm-source	no	Tag with source name.
username	string	my_name	no	Tag with user name.
verboselvl	int	0	yes	0 for no extra logs, 1 for INFO, 2 for DEBUG.

Selection

Option	Type	Default	Required	Description
file_path	string		yes	Path to the input file.

Analysis

Option	Type	Default	Required	Description
timetype	string		yes	Format of the Burst Oneset Time.
background_tmin	float	-4.0	no	Minimum Time used for background estimation.
background_tmax	float	-2.0	no	Maximum Time used for background estimation.
signal_tmin	float	-1.0	no	Minimum Time used for signal estimation.
signal_tmax	float	1.0	no	Maximum Time used for signal estimation.

Note

Note on Time Formats. The timetype can be TT or OBT for AGILE seconds (TT seconds since 2004-01-01 00:00:00.000), or a format acknowledged by the astropy.time.Time class. T0 will be converted in AGILE seconds and used as reference time for plots and analyses.