SIRI-2 Detection of the Gamma-Ray Burst 221009A

Abstract

SIRI-2 is a collection of strontium iodide gamma-ray detectors sensitive at approximately 400 keV to 10 MeV, launched on the Department of Defense's STPSat-6 to geosynchronous orbit. SIRI-2 detected the gamma-ray burst (GRB) 221009A and, unlike most GRB detectors, was not saturated and did not require any pulse pileup corrections. The energetics of this burst as measured by SIRI-2 are consistent with those found by other instruments, and the Band function fits to the spectra are consistent with those from the unsaturated Insight and GECAM instruments and similar to corrected spectra from the Fermi Gamma-ray Burst Monitor, but softer than those found by Konus-Wind when that instrument was saturated. The total fluence measured with SIRI-2 was measured to be 0.140 ± 0.002 erg cm ^−2 , lower than other instruments, likely due to the increasing background of SIRI-2 forcing the calculation to use a smaller time interval. An extrapolation of the distributions of fluences from GRBs to the fluence of 221009A measured with SIRI-2 indicates bursts brighter than this one should occur about once every 4000 yr.

Keywords

• Gamma-ray bursts
• Gamma-ray transient sources
• Jets
• High energy astrophysics
• Core-collapse supernovae
• Gamma-rays