Main Search Form List of GINGA Catalogs Tips Archive Hera Data Analysis Help

Ginga Mission Description

GINGAASMLC Catalog

The GINGAASMLC database table contains information derived from the FITS lightcurves obtained with the ASM on board the Ginga mission. The lightcurves are rates as function of time, and they can be used with the general FITS tools within HEAsoft or XRONOS.

GINGABGD Catalog

The GINGABGD database table contains a summary of the contents of the Ginga pointed observations of (nominally empty) background fields. This table has been produced from the raw Ginga LAC First Reduction Files (FRFs), and contains information of the individual pointings in addition to FITS spectra and light curves, HDS and FITS data cubes and the plots produced during the pipeline processing. These products can be used with either the Ginga data analysis software or the XANADU software suite.

GINGALAC Catalog

The GINGALAC database table contains a summary of the contents of the Ginga pointed observations. This table has been produced from the raw Ginga LAC First Reduction Files (FRFs) and contains information of the individual pointings in addition to FITS spectra and light curves, HDS and FITS data cubes and the plots produced during the pipeline processing. These products can be used with either the Ginga data analysis software or the XANADU software suite.

GINGALOG Catalog

The GINGALOG database table contains selected information from the Large Area Counter (LAC) aboard the third Japanese X-ray astronomy satellite Ginga. The Ginga experiment began on day 36, 5 February 1987 and ended in November 1991. Ginga consisted of the LAC, the all-sky monitor (ASM) and the gamma-ray burst detector (GBD). The satellite was in a circular orbit at 31 degree inclination with apogee 670 km and perigee 510 km, and with a period of 96 minutes.

A Ginga observation consisted of varying numbers of major frames which had lengths of 4, 32, or 128 seconds, depending on the setting of the bitrate. Each GINGALOG database entry is the first record of a series of observations having the same values of "ACS MONITOR" (Attitude Control System). When this value changes, a new FITS file was written. The other Ginga catalog database, GINGAMODE is also a subset of the same LAC dump file used to create GINGALOG. GINGAMODE contains a listing whenever any of the following changes: "BITRATE", "LACMODE", "DISCRIMINATOR", or "ACS MONITOR". Thus, GINGAMODE monitors changes in several parameters and GINGALOG is a basic log of all the FITS files. Both databases point to the corresponding archived Flexible Image Transport System (FITS) files, but GINGAMODE may have more than one entry for a given FILE_LCURVE in the database. The user is invited to browse though the observations available from Ginga using GINGALOG or GINGAMODE, then extract the FITS files for more detailed analysis.

GINGAMODE Catalog

The GINGAMODE database table contains selected information from the Large Area Counter (LAC) aboard the third Japanese X-ray astronomy satellite Ginga. The Ginga experiment began on day 36, 5 February 1987 and ended in November 1991. Ginga consisted of the LAC, the all-sky monitor (ASM) and the gamma-ray burst detector (GBD). The satellite was in a circular orbit at 31 degree inclination with apogee 670 km and perigee 510 km, and with a period of 96 minutes.

A Ginga observation consisted of varying numbers of major frames which had lengths of 4, 32, or 128 seconds, depending on the setting of the bitrate. Each GINGAMODE database entry consists of data from the first record of a series of observations having the same values of the following: "BITRATE", "LACMODE", "DISCRIMINATOR", or "ACS MONITOR". When any of these changed, a new entry was written into GINGAMODE. The other Ginga catalog database, GINGALOG is also a subset of the same LAC dump file used to create GINGAMODE. GINGALOG contains a listing only whenever the "ACS monitor" (Attitude Control System) changes. Thus, GINGAMODE monitors changes in four parameters and GINGALOG is a basic log database mapping the individual FITS files. Ginga FITS files may have more than one entries in the GINGAMODE database. Both databases point to the same archived Flexible Image Transport System (FITS) files created from the LAC dump files. The user is invited to browse though the observations available from Ginga using GINGALOG or GINGAMODE, then extract the FITS files for more detailed analysis.

GINGARAW Catalog

The GINGARAW database table provides access to the raw GINGA files in FITS format for the LAC experiment.

Ginga was the third Japanese X-ray astronomy satellite. It was launched into low Earth orbit on 5th February 1987 and re-entered the atmosphere on 1st November 1991. The scientific payload consisted of the Large Area Counter (LAC; Turner et al. 1989), the All-Sky Monitor (ASM; Tsunemi et al. 1989) and the Gamma-ray Burst Detector (GBD; Murakami et al. 1989). A full description of the satellite is given in Makino et al. (1987). During its lifetime Ginga performed over 1000 pointed observations of approximately 350 different targets, covering all then known classes of cosmic X-ray sources.

The LAC experiment, sensitive to X-rays with energy 1.5-37 keV, was the main scientific instrument aboard Ginga. It was designed and built under a Japan-UK collaboration (ISAS, U. Tokyo, Nagoya U., U. Leicester, Rutherford Appleton Lab). It consisted of an array of eight collimated co-aligned proportional counters with a total effective area of approximately 4000 cm^2. Steel collimators restricted the field of view to 1.1 x 2.0 degrees (FWHM).

Browse Feedback