BURCBMASTR - BurstCube Master Observation Catalog

Overview

This table records high-level information for the observations obtained with the BurstCube mission and provides access to the BurstCube data. The mission BurstCube was a 6U CubeSat with the primary objective to search localized and characterized sky events in the energy band 10 keV - 1 MeV, with emphasis to short Gamma-ray Burst. It was launched on March 21, 2024, on a SpaceX commercial resupply mission to the International Space Station from where it was deployed in space on April 18, 2024.

The instrument consists of four Cesium Iodide (CsI) scintillators, each read out by 116 silicon photomultipliers (SiPMs). During operation, BurstCube was to monitor the sky with its large Field of View (~> 6 sr) and send down data in two modes. The Continuous Binned Data (CBD) mode has spectra binned in 16 channels (counted as 0-15) and collected every N second, where N is an adjustable value, and a Time-Tagged Event (T3E) mode, where each event is time-tagged and a spectral channel within 1024 channels is assigned. Data in the two modes were collected by the detector. The CBD mode data were always collected and sent on ground. Data in T3E are sent on ground if a transient event was triggered on board or if requested from ground (RT3E).

The mission was set to operate for one year; however, a number of challenges with the spacecraft (attitude control system sensors and GPS malfunctioning and one of the solar arrays did not deploy) shortened the mission lifetime, as well as rearranged the planned mission operations.

The science period started in late May and ended on September 14, 2024, due to the orbit decay. The instrument was not always operating, and data were downloaded on ground for only a subset of days during the science period (see the BurstCube timeline). The data were mainly collected in the CBD mode and few observations have data in event mode. The data are divided into intervals of one day and labeled with a sequence number (YYMMDD) which represents two digits each for the year, the month, and the day. This database table contains one record for each sequence number and includes parameters related to the observation. The BurstCube data archive includes 84 observations: all observations have housekeeping data, 45 observations have CBD data and 7 observations have event data. The CBD data were all collected with an integration time of 0.256 s and are provided as an unfiltered file, an equivalent file with some filtering applied, and a plot to show the difference between the unfiltered and filtered data and the orbits. None of the event data were triggered but they were requested to be downloaded from ground. There are a number of caveats provided by the instrument teams collected in this document.

Catalog Bibcode

2020SPIE11444E..1XP

Bulletin

The BURCBMASTR database table was last updated on 31 July 2025.

References

BurstCube: a CubeSat for gravitational wave counterparts,
     Perkins, J.S., Brewer, I., et al., 2020, Proc. SPIE 11444
     Space Telescopes and Instrumentation 2020: Ultraviolet to Gamma Ray;
     114441X (13 Dec 2020)
    =2020SPIE11444E..1XP

Provenance

The contents of this database table are generated at the HEASARC using the data delivered as the final archive from the BurstCube Science Mission Operations Center, where the data pipeline was run.

Parameters

ObsID
Unique observation number, given as a six-digit number indicating the year, month, and the day of month in YYMMDD format.

Time
The start time of the observation.

End_Time
The time corresponding to the end of the observation.

Num_Events
This parameter contains the total number of event files present in the observation. The event files are generated either because a trigger occurs on board or because event are requested from ground. It is set to zero if no event data are present.

Exposure_CS0
The exposure, in seconds, for the CS0 instrument for the continuous binned data (CBD), unfiltered. The value is supplied with a precision of 10^-3 seconds.

Exposure_CS1
The exposure, in seconds, for the CS1 instrument for the continuous binned data (CBD), unfiltered. The value is supplied with a precision of 10^-3 seconds.

Exposure_CS2
The exposure, in seconds, for the CS2 instrument for the continuous binned data (CBD), unfiltered. The value is supplied with a precision of 10^-3 seconds.

Exposure_CS3
The exposure, in seconds, for the CS3 instrument for the continuous binned data (CBD), unfiltered. The value is supplied with a precision of 10^-3 seconds.

Integration_Time_CS0
Integration time/time resolution of the CBD in the CS0 instrument, in seconds. The value is supplied with a precision of 10^-3 seconds.

Integration_Time_CS1
Integration time/time resolution of the CBD in the CS1 instrument, in seconds. The value is supplied with a precision of 10^-3 seconds.

Integration_Time_CS2
Integration time/time resolution of the CBD in the CS2 instrument, in seconds. The value is supplied with a precision of 10^-3 seconds.

Integration_Time_CS3
Integration time/time resolution of the CBD in the CS3 instrument, in seconds. The value is supplied with a precision of 10^-3 seconds.

Count_Rate_CS0
The average, unfiltered count rate in the CS0 instrument for the CBD, in counts s^-1. This values is obtained by summing the counts in channels 2-15 of the entire CS0 CBD unfiltered file and dividing by the unfiltered exposure for CS0. The rate therefore includes SAA and other oddities not removed. The value is supplied with a precision of 10^-3 counts s^-1.

Count_Rate_CS1
The average, unfiltered count rate in the CS1 instrument for the CBD, in counts s^-1. This values is obtained by summing the counts in channels 2-15 of the entire CS1 CBD unfiltered file and dividing by the unfiltered exposure for CS1. The rate therefore includes SAA and other oddities not removed. The value is supplied with a precision of 10^-3 counts s^-1.

Count_Rate_CS2
The average, unfiltered count rate in the CS2 instrument for the CBD, in counts s^-1. This values is obtained by summing the counts in channels 2-15 of the entire CS2 CBD unfiltered file and dividing by the unfiltered exposure for CS2. The rate therefore includes SAA and other oddities not removed. The value is supplied with a precision of 10^-3 counts s^-1.

Count_Rate_CS3
The average, unfiltered count rate in the CS3 instrument for the CBD, in counts s^-1. This values is obtained by summing the counts in channels 2-15 of the entire CS3 CBD unfiltered file and dividing by the unfiltered exposure for CS3. The rate therefore includes SAA and other oddities not removed. The value is supplied with a precision of 10^-3 counts s^-1.

Processing_Version
This records the version of the processing script used in the pipeline to generate the data products for the observation. This is set to 00.00.00.00 and corresponds to the final version of the archive.

Processing_Date
This parameter records the date when the data were last processed.

Contact Person

Questions regarding the BURCBMASTR database table can be addressed to the HEASARC Help Desk.

Page Author: Browse Software Development Team
Last Modified: Monday, 04-Aug-2025 17:57:11 EDT