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Session 51 - Interstellar Medium II.
Display session, Thursday, January 08
Exhibit Hall,
A X-ray CCD camera aboard a sounding rocket was used to observe the North Polar Spur, an enhanced feature of the Soft X-ray Background. The flight took place on May 2, 1997 from White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico. The target center was (l=20, b=+45) with a 60 x 20 degree field of view aligned along the North Polar Spur SXRB feature seen in 3/4 KeV maps of the Rosat All-Sky Survey. [Snowden et al. 1995]
The goal was to examine the NPS with high spectral energy resolution. To that end, we utilized a three-phase CCD with thinned poly gates made by EEV. This device was designed to improve quantum efficiency in the soft X-ray band, i.e. below 1 KeV.
We present trajectory and aspect solutions for this rocket flight. We discuss the amount of data contamination from cosmic rays, energetic particles and scattered solar X-rays, as well as atmospheric absorption corrections. We present our corrected spectrum for the NPS and the preliminary results of spectral fits with Raymond and Smith thermal plasma models. Finally we compare the results for the North Polar Spur with results from our previous observation of a similar enhanced feature of the SXRB in the galactic center. [Mendenhall, 1997]
