Neutral Atmospheric Density Measurement Using Insight-HXMT Data by the Earth Occultation Technique
The Earth occultation technique has broad applications in both astronomy and atmospheric density measurements. We construct the background model during the occultation of the Crab Nebula observed by the Insight-Hard X-ray Modulation Telescope (Insight-HXMT) at energies between 6 and 100 keV. We prop...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , , , , , , , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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IOP Publishing
2022-01-01
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| Series: | The Astrophysical Journal Supplement Series |
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| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4365/ac9f16 |
| _version_ | 1797701966265057280 |
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| author | Wang-Chen Xue Xiao-Bo Li Shao-Lin Xiong Yong Chen Shuang-Nan Zhang Li-Ming Song Shu Zhang Ming-Yu Ge You-Li Tuo Hai-Tao Li Dao-Chun Yu Dong-Ya Guo Jia-Cong Liu Yan-Qiu Zhang Chao Zheng |
| author_facet | Wang-Chen Xue Xiao-Bo Li Shao-Lin Xiong Yong Chen Shuang-Nan Zhang Li-Ming Song Shu Zhang Ming-Yu Ge You-Li Tuo Hai-Tao Li Dao-Chun Yu Dong-Ya Guo Jia-Cong Liu Yan-Qiu Zhang Chao Zheng |
| author_sort | Wang-Chen Xue |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | The Earth occultation technique has broad applications in both astronomy and atmospheric density measurements. We construct the background model during the occultation of the Crab Nebula observed by the Insight-Hard X-ray Modulation Telescope (Insight-HXMT) at energies between 6 and 100 keV. We propose a Bayesian atmospheric density retrieval method based on the Earth occultation technique, combining Poisson and Gaussian statistics. By modeling the atmospheric attenuation of X-ray photons during the occultation, we simultaneously retrieved the neutral densities of the atmosphere at different altitude ranges. Our method considers the correlation of densities between neighboring atmospheric layers and reduces the potential systematic bias to which previous work may be subject. Previous analyses based on light-curve fitting or spectral fitting also lost some spectral or temporal information of the data. In contrast to previous work, the occultation data observed by the three telescopes on board Insight-HXMT is fully used in our analysis, further reducing the statistical error in density retrieval. We apply our method to cross-check the (semi)empirical atmospheric models, using 115 sets of occultation data of the Crab Nebula observed by Insight-HXMT. We find that the retrieved neutral density is ∼10%, ∼20%, and ∼25% less than the values of the widely used atmospheric model NRLMSISE-00, in the altitude range of 55–80 km, 80–90 km, and 90–100 km, respectively. We also show that the newly released atmospheric model NRLMSIS 2.0 is generally consistent with our density measurements. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-12T04:43:18Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-cafb0de60cb54e51948813f066fb5302 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 0067-0049 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-12T04:43:18Z |
| publishDate | 2022-01-01 |
| publisher | IOP Publishing |
| record_format | Article |
| series | The Astrophysical Journal Supplement Series |
| spelling | doaj.art-cafb0de60cb54e51948813f066fb53022023-09-03T09:30:44ZengIOP PublishingThe Astrophysical Journal Supplement Series0067-00492022-01-012641510.3847/1538-4365/ac9f16Neutral Atmospheric Density Measurement Using Insight-HXMT Data by the Earth Occultation TechniqueWang-Chen Xue0https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8664-5085Xiao-Bo Li1https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4585-589XShao-Lin Xiong2https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4771-7653Yong Chen3https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9834-2196Shuang-Nan Zhang4https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5586-1017Li-Ming Song5https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0274-3396Shu Zhang6Ming-Yu Ge7https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2749-6638You-Li Tuo8https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3127-0110Hai-Tao Li9https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6395-1936Dao-Chun Yu10Dong-Ya Guo11Jia-Cong Liu12Yan-Qiu Zhang13Chao Zheng14Key Laboratory of Particle Astrophysics, Institute of High Energy Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences , 19B Yuquan Road, Beijing 100049, People’s Republic of China ; lixb@ihep.ac.cn, xiongsl@ihep.ac.cn; University of Chinese Academy of Sciences , Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, People’s Republic of ChinaKey Laboratory of Particle Astrophysics, Institute of High Energy Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences , 19B Yuquan Road, Beijing 100049, People’s Republic of China ; lixb@ihep.ac.cn, xiongsl@ihep.ac.cnKey Laboratory of Particle Astrophysics, Institute of High Energy Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences , 19B Yuquan Road, Beijing 100049, People’s Republic of China ; lixb@ihep.ac.cn, xiongsl@ihep.ac.cnKey Laboratory of Particle Astrophysics, Institute of High Energy Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences , 19B Yuquan Road, Beijing 100049, People’s Republic of China ; lixb@ihep.ac.cn, xiongsl@ihep.ac.cnKey Laboratory of Particle Astrophysics, Institute of High Energy Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences , 19B Yuquan Road, Beijing 100049, People’s Republic of China ; lixb@ihep.ac.cn, xiongsl@ihep.ac.cnKey Laboratory of Particle Astrophysics, Institute of High Energy Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences , 19B Yuquan Road, Beijing 100049, People’s Republic of China ; lixb@ihep.ac.cn, xiongsl@ihep.ac.cnKey Laboratory of Particle Astrophysics, Institute of High Energy Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences , 19B Yuquan Road, Beijing 100049, People’s Republic of China ; lixb@ihep.ac.cn, xiongsl@ihep.ac.cnKey Laboratory of Particle Astrophysics, Institute of High Energy Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences , 19B Yuquan Road, Beijing 100049, People’s Republic of China ; lixb@ihep.ac.cn, xiongsl@ihep.ac.cnKey Laboratory of Particle Astrophysics, Institute of High Energy Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences , 19B Yuquan Road, Beijing 100049, People’s Republic of China ; lixb@ihep.ac.cn, xiongsl@ihep.ac.cnUniversity of Chinese Academy of Sciences , Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, People’s Republic of China; Key Laboratory of Electronics and Information Technology for Space Systems, National Space Science Center, Chinese Academy of Sciences , Beijing, 100190, People’s Republic of ChinaUniversity of Chinese Academy of Sciences , Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, People’s Republic of China; Key Laboratory of Electronics and Information Technology for Space Systems, National Space Science Center, Chinese Academy of Sciences , Beijing, 100190, People’s Republic of ChinaKey Laboratory of Particle Astrophysics, Institute of High Energy Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences , 19B Yuquan Road, Beijing 100049, People’s Republic of China ; lixb@ihep.ac.cn, xiongsl@ihep.ac.cnKey Laboratory of Particle Astrophysics, Institute of High Energy Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences , 19B Yuquan Road, Beijing 100049, People’s Republic of China ; lixb@ihep.ac.cn, xiongsl@ihep.ac.cn; University of Chinese Academy of Sciences , Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, People’s Republic of ChinaKey Laboratory of Particle Astrophysics, Institute of High Energy Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences , 19B Yuquan Road, Beijing 100049, People’s Republic of China ; lixb@ihep.ac.cn, xiongsl@ihep.ac.cn; University of Chinese Academy of Sciences , Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, People’s Republic of ChinaKey Laboratory of Particle Astrophysics, Institute of High Energy Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences , 19B Yuquan Road, Beijing 100049, People’s Republic of China ; lixb@ihep.ac.cn, xiongsl@ihep.ac.cn; University of Chinese Academy of Sciences , Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, People’s Republic of ChinaThe Earth occultation technique has broad applications in both astronomy and atmospheric density measurements. We construct the background model during the occultation of the Crab Nebula observed by the Insight-Hard X-ray Modulation Telescope (Insight-HXMT) at energies between 6 and 100 keV. We propose a Bayesian atmospheric density retrieval method based on the Earth occultation technique, combining Poisson and Gaussian statistics. By modeling the atmospheric attenuation of X-ray photons during the occultation, we simultaneously retrieved the neutral densities of the atmosphere at different altitude ranges. Our method considers the correlation of densities between neighboring atmospheric layers and reduces the potential systematic bias to which previous work may be subject. Previous analyses based on light-curve fitting or spectral fitting also lost some spectral or temporal information of the data. In contrast to previous work, the occultation data observed by the three telescopes on board Insight-HXMT is fully used in our analysis, further reducing the statistical error in density retrieval. We apply our method to cross-check the (semi)empirical atmospheric models, using 115 sets of occultation data of the Crab Nebula observed by Insight-HXMT. We find that the retrieved neutral density is ∼10%, ∼20%, and ∼25% less than the values of the widely used atmospheric model NRLMSISE-00, in the altitude range of 55–80 km, 80–90 km, and 90–100 km, respectively. We also show that the newly released atmospheric model NRLMSIS 2.0 is generally consistent with our density measurements.https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4365/ac9f16Earth atmosphereOccultationAtmospheric compositionPulsar wind nebulae |
| spellingShingle | Wang-Chen Xue Xiao-Bo Li Shao-Lin Xiong Yong Chen Shuang-Nan Zhang Li-Ming Song Shu Zhang Ming-Yu Ge You-Li Tuo Hai-Tao Li Dao-Chun Yu Dong-Ya Guo Jia-Cong Liu Yan-Qiu Zhang Chao Zheng Neutral Atmospheric Density Measurement Using Insight-HXMT Data by the Earth Occultation Technique The Astrophysical Journal Supplement Series Earth atmosphere Occultation Atmospheric composition Pulsar wind nebulae |
| title | Neutral Atmospheric Density Measurement Using Insight-HXMT Data by the Earth Occultation Technique |
| title_full | Neutral Atmospheric Density Measurement Using Insight-HXMT Data by the Earth Occultation Technique |
| title_fullStr | Neutral Atmospheric Density Measurement Using Insight-HXMT Data by the Earth Occultation Technique |
| title_full_unstemmed | Neutral Atmospheric Density Measurement Using Insight-HXMT Data by the Earth Occultation Technique |
| title_short | Neutral Atmospheric Density Measurement Using Insight-HXMT Data by the Earth Occultation Technique |
| title_sort | neutral atmospheric density measurement using insight hxmt data by the earth occultation technique |
| topic | Earth atmosphere Occultation Atmospheric composition Pulsar wind nebulae |
| url | https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4365/ac9f16 |
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