Calibration and Performance of the X-ray Spectrometer on Astro-E2

T. Furusho, R. Fujimoto, K. Mitsuda, Y. Takei, Y. Ishisaki1), U. Morita1), M. Yamamoto2), K. R. Boyce4), G. V. Brown4), J. Cottam4), R. L. Kelley4), C. A. Kilbourne4), F. S. Porter4)

Institute of Space and Astronautical Science, JAXA, Sagamihara, Kanagawa 229-8510, Japan
1) Tokyo Metropolitan University, Hachioji, Tokyo 192-0397, Japan
2) Miyazaki University, Miyazaki 889-2192, Japan
3) NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD 20771, USA

The X-ray Spectrometer (XRS) is a non-dispersive X-ray detector on board the Japan-US collaborative X-ray Astronomy mission, Astro-E2, which is scheduled to be launched in early 2005. The detector system consists of a 32-pixel microcalorimter array with a sensitivity over the energy band 0.3-12 keV. The mean measured energy resolution (FWHM) is about 6.5 eV at 6 keV and 7.2 eV at 9 keV for most of the pixels. Here we present the results of our ground calibration and performance tests carried out. We also describe the methods applied to the data and detailed characteristics including the energy scale, effective area, and line spread function.