USRA IRAD FY21 Award

USRA IRAD FY21 Award

Multiple SmallSats Cross-correlation Localization Technique for Gamma-ray Transients

Dr. Corinne Fletcher (PI) and Dr. Adam Goldstein (Co-I) were awarded an FY21 USRA IRAD to provide a publicly available standardized toolkit for determining and improving the location of gamma-ray transients on the sky using multiple instruments in various orbits.  Currently, the cross-correlation localization technique is used to do this by the InterPlanetary Network for various instruments in low Earth orbit (LEO) and beyond. However, the code is proprietary, maintained in St. Petersburg, Russia, and the method used is simplistic when considering pairs of instruments in LEO or for weak to moderately bright signals. With many gamma-ray missions utilizing SmallSat and CubeSat solicitations, there is a need for a public, modernized toolkit. This would allow current and future missions to easily determine their localization capabilities and the improvement to that from including multiple instrument detections. This idea would align with both the Earth and Space Small- and Micro-satellite Mission Concepts and Instrument and Mission Concepts for Multi-Messenger Astrophysics strategic interest areas and be a joint proposal with a MSFC Center Innovation Fund (CIF).