The observation of Gamma Ray Bursts and Terrestrial Gamma-ray Flashes with AGILE

• Published in: arXiv.org 2011-12
• Main Authors: E Del Monte, Barbiellini, G, Fuschino, F, Giuliani, A, Longo, F, Marisaldi, M, Mereghetti, S, Moretti, E, Trifoglio, M, Vianello, G, Costa, E, Donnarumma, I, Evangelista, Y, Feroci, M, Galli, M, Lapshov, I, Lazzarotto, F, Lipari, P, Pacciani, L, Rapisarda, M, Soffitta, P, Tavani, M, Vercellone, S, Cutini, S, Boffelli, F, Bulgarelli, A, Caraveo, P, Cattaneo, P W, Chen, A, G Di Cocco, Gianotti, F, Labanti, C, Morselli, A, Pellizzoni, A, Perotti, F, Piano, G, Picozza, P, Pilia, M, Prest, M, Pucella, G, Rappoldi, A, Sabatini, S, Striani, E, Trois, A, Vallazza, E, Vittorini, V, Antonelli, L A, Pittori, C, Preger, B, Santolamazza, P, Verrecchia, F, Giommi, P, Salotti, L
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Confidence intervals; Field of view; Gamma ray astronomy; Gamma ray bursts; Gamma rays
• ISSN: 2331-8422
• DOI: 10.48550/arxiv.1112.2865

Since its early phases of operation, the AGILE mission is successfully observing Gamma Ray Bursts (GRBs) in the hard X-ray band with the SuperAGILE imager and in the MeV range with the Mini-Calorimeter. Up to now, three firm GRB detections were obtained above 25 MeV and some bursts were detected with lower statistical confidence in the same energy band. When a GRB is localized, either by SuperAGILE or Swift/BAT or INTEGRAL/IBIS or Fermi/GBM or IPN, inside the field of view of the Gamma Ray Imager of AGILE, a detection is searched for in the gamma ray band or an upper limit is provided. A promising result of AGILE is the detection of very short gamma ray transients, a few ms in duration and possibly identified with Terrestrial Gamma-ray Flashes. In this paper we show the current status of the observation of Gamma Ray Bursts and Terrestrial Gamma-ray Flashes with AGILE.