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| Mission/Instruments | Science Requirement Absolute Time | Timing System Design | Timing Calibration Status | In-orbit Timing Calibration Targets | Reported Issues | Reference | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Requirement | Goal | GPS Receiver | Clock Stability | (Absolute Timing Precision) | ||||
RXTE/PCA  | μsec | none | No | 5 ~ 8 μsec | delay 16 - 20 μsec (corrected?) | None | rxte_time.html | |
| RXTE/HEXTE | μsec | none | delay 0-1 μsec (corrected?) | None | see above | |||
| Chandra / ACIS | 0.25625 s (one minor frame start time) | 0.001 s (synchronize minor frame starts) | No (sync DSN) | 3.2 μsec | 285 ± 6 μsec | None at present | Davis et al. 2003 (davis.pdf) | |
| Chandra / HRC | 16 μsec | 4 ± 4 μsec | Crab PSR B1821-24 | Note: Precision relative to RXTE. Due to a wiring problem, photon time Time tag gets attached | Davis et al. 2003 Rots 2006 | |||
| XMM-Newton/EPIC-MOS | ||||||||
| XMM-Newtion/EPIC-PN | 1 ms | none | No | - | offset = -354±11 μsec SD=108 μsec | Crab pulsar (bi-annual) | None currently | Kirsch et al, SPIE, 5165, 85 Martin-Carrillo et al, A&A, 545, A126 (2012) |
| INTEGRAL/SPI | L.Kuiper 2003 L.Kuiper 2019 | |||||||
| INTEGRAL/IBIS | same above | |||||||
| Swift/BAT | ~ 0.3 ms | GRB light curves | Yes | ~ 6.572 x 10^-8 s/s | ~ 100 μs (with offset of ~ 80 μs) | Crab pulsar (anual) | None at present | BAT team wiki page; private communication with Michael Tripicco see BAT Wiki: Pre-launch Timing, BAT Wiki (410.4-SPEC-0005F.pdf) (Limited Access) |
| Swift/XRT | ~ 10 ms | ~ 270 μs | Crab pulsar | None at present | G. Cusumano et al 2012 D. Burrows et al. 2005 | |||
Suzaku/XIS | No science requirement defined. | No | 1.9 x 10^-9 s/s | Not confirmed. | A0535+262, Her X-1, etc | N/A | Y.Terada et al 2008 (10.1093/pasj/60.sp1.S25) | |
| Suzaku/HXD | 360±150 μsec (270±130 μsec in condition) | Crab for coordinated PSR1509-58 | Timing shift by a failure in time stamp at the ground station during 2012-2014 (Shu Koyama, Fixed) | |||||
| NuSTAR/FPM | Should be 100 ms | none | No | Freely drifting by ~3 ms/day. | 65 us (1-sigma) | Crab | ~5ms offset using Corrected through | Bachetti+ in prep (can distribute early copy) |
| AstroSat/LAXPC | None defined | Yes (offline referral) | 4 μsec rms after GPS synchronization | fixed offset | Crab Pulsar (with Radio) | None at present | D. Bhattacharya 2017 (10.1007/s12036-017-9461-x) Basu et al (in prep) | |
| AstroSat/CZTI | None defined | Yes (offline referral) | 3 μsec rms after GPS synchronization | fixed offset -650 ±70µs w.r.t. Fermi-LAT | Crab Pulsar GRBs | None at present | D. Bhattacharya 2017 (10.1007/s12036-017-9461-x) Basu et al 2018 Basu et al (in prep) | |
| HXMT | ||||||||
| Hitomi/SXS, SXI, HXI, SGD | 350 μsec | 35 μsec | Yes | 0.01μsec(GPSR) | ~ 120-230 μsec | Crab (with radio) note: using out-of-time event for SXI | absolute timing accuracy is much larger than expected on ground (3 μsec) | Y.Terada et al 2018 (10.1117/1.JATIS.4.1.011206) |
| NICER/XTI | 100 ns (RMS) | none | Yes | N/A | Approx. 3 µs | Crab Pulsar PSR B1821-24A PSR B1937+21 | Precise 1-second offset in on-board timestamps due to flight software bug; corrected using TIMEZERO keyword in pipeline-processed FITS data files. (see HEASARC page for detail) | Markwardt et al. (in prep.) |
| eROSITA | ||||||||
XRISM/Resolve  | 1 msec | none | Yes | same as Hitomi | (under discussion) | |||
| XRISM/Xtend | 10 msec | none | Yes | (under discussion) | ||||
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