INTEGRAL Commissioning & PV phase

Overview

This page summarizes the status of the INTEGRAL observatory during the early mission phase (revolutions 1 to 25, i.e. 17 October 2002 - 30 December 2002) covering the Commissioning Phase which includes the so-called instrument Performance and Verification (PV) Phase.

After launch on 17 October 2002, 4:41 UT, the first part of the Commissioning Phase is dedicated to instrument activation and optimization of instrument configuration and nominally lasts for 3 weeks, i.e. up to 07 November 2002 (rev. 8). The subsequent Performance and Verification (PV) Phase consists of a set of observations lasting nominally 5 weeks (i.e. up to 16 December 2002) but actually extending until 30 December 2002, i.e. into the Nominal Mission Phase which is formally scheduled to start on 17 December 2002. The reason for extending PV phase operations lies in the long out-gassing phase for SPI after activation.

Details on the observatory status (plans and results) during the commisioning phase, including PV phase can be found here.

The data acquired during PV phase are used for the initial in-flight calibration of the instruments and shall demonstrate and verify the performance of the scientific payload. A refinement of the initial calibration including important calibration data at photon energies above 1 MeV is planned based on observations of the Crab Nebula, becoming visible for INTEGRAL in February 2003.

All data obtained during the PV phase up to including 16 December 2002 (nominal end of commissioning phase) are proprietary data for the INTEGRAL Science Working team (including instrument teams). PV phase observational data obtained after 16 December 2002 are publicly available via the ISDC.