Search

We studied the 2018 outburst of the black hole transient H 1743 − 322 with a series of Insight-HXMT, NICER, and NuSTAR observations, covering the 1–120 keV band. With our broad-band X-ray spectral modelling, we confirm that the source remained in the low/hard state throughout the month-long outburst, although it became marginally softer at peak flux. We detected Type-C quasi-periodic oscillations (QPOs) and followed the evolution of their properties. The QPO frequency increased from ∼0.1 to ∼0.4 Hz during the rising phase of the outburst and decreased again in the decline. Continuum X-ray flux, power-law photon index, QPO frequency, and QPO root-mean-square amplitude were positively correlated. The QPO amplitude was slightly higher in the soft X-ray band (typical values of 12–16 per cent, compared with 8–10 per cent in the hard band). Our spectral-timing results shed light on the initial rising phase in the low/hard state, which has rarely been monitored with such high cadence, time resolution, and broad-band coverage. Combining spectral and timing properties, we find that ‘failed’ (hard state only) and ‘successful’ outbursts follow the same initial evolutionary track, although the former class of outburst never reaches the threshold for a transition to softer (thermally dominated) accretion regimes.

GRO J1008-57, as a Be/X-ray transient pulsar, is considered to have the highest magnetic field in known neutron star X-ray binary systems. Observational data of the X-ray outbursts in GRO J1008-57 from 2017 to 2020 were collected by the Insight-HXMT satellite. In this work, the spin period of the neutron star in GRO J1008-57 was determined to be about 93.28 seconds in August 2017, 93.22 seconds in February 2018, 93.25 seconds in June 2019 and 93.14 seconds in June 2020. GRO J1008-57 evolved in the spin-up process with a mean rate of − ( 2.10 ± 0.05 ) × 10−4 s/d from 2009 – 2018, and turned into a spin down process with a rate of ( 6.7 ± 0.6 ) × 10−5 s/d from Feb 2018 to June 2019. During the type II outburst of 2020, GRO J1008-57 had the spin-up torque again. During the torque reversals, the pulse profiles and continuum X-ray spectra did not change significantly, and the cyclotron resonant scattering feature around 80 keV was only detected during the outbursts in 2017 and 2020. Based on the observed mean spin-up rate, we estimated the inner accretion disk radius in GRO J1008-57 (about 1 - 2 times of the Alfven radius) by comparing different accretion torque models of magnetic neutron stars. During the spin-down process, the magnetic torque should dominate over the matter accreting inflow torque, and we constrained the surface dipole magnetic field B ≥ 6 × 10 12 G for the neutron star in GRO J1008-57, which is consistent with the magnetic field strength obtained by cyclotron line centroid energy.

Here we present a detailed study of the broadband noise in the power density spectra of the black hole X-ray binary MAXI J1820+070 during the hard state of its 2018 outburst, using Hard X-ray Modulation Telescope observations. The broadband noise shows two main humps, which might separately correspond to variability from a variable disk and two Comptonization regions. We fitted the two humps with multiple Lorentzian functions and studied the energy-dependent properties of each component up to 90–150 keV and their evolution with spectral changes. The lowest-frequency component is considered as the subharmonic of the quasiperiodic oscillation component and shows a different energy dependence compared with other broadband noise components. We found that although the fractional rms of all the broadband noise components mainly decreases with the energy, their rms spectra are different in shape. Above ∼20–30 keV, the characteristic frequencies of these components increase sharply with the energy, meaning that the high-energy component is more variable on short timescales. Our results suggest that the hot inner flow in MAXI J1820+070 is likely to be inhomogeneous. We propose a geometry with a truncated accretion disk and two Comptonization regions.

We study the spectral evolution of the black hole candidate EXO 1846$-$031 during its 2019 outburst, in the 1--150 keV band,with the {\it {Hard X-ray Modulation Telescope}}. The continuum spectrum is well modelled with an absorbed disk-blackbody plus cutoff power-law, in the hard, intermediate and soft states. In addition, we detect an $\approx$6.6 keV Fe emission line in the hard intermediate state. Throughout the soft intermediate and soft states, the fitted inner disk radius remains almost constant; we suggest that it has settled at the innermost stable circular orbit (ISCO). However, in the hard and hard intermediate states, the apparent inner radius was unphysically small (smaller than ISCO), even after accounting for the Compton scattering of some of the disk photons by the corona in the fit. We argue that this is the result of a high hardening factor, $f_{\rm col}\approx2.0-2.7$, in the early phases of outburst evolution, well above the canonical value of 1.7 suitable to a steady disk. We suggest that the inner disk radius was close to ISCO already in the low/hard state. Furthermore, we propose that this high value of hardening factor in the relatively hard state is probably caused by the additional illuminating of the coronal irradiation onto the disk. Additionally, we estimate the spin parameter with the continuum-fitting method, over a range of plausible black hole masses and distances. We compare our results with the spin measured with the reflection-fitting method and find that the inconsistency of the two results is partly caused by the different choices of $f_{\rm col}$., Comment: 21 pages, 6 figures

We report on the Insight-HXMT observations of the new black hole X-ray binary MAXI J1820+070 during its 2018 outburst. Detailed spectral analysis via the continuum fitting method shows an evolution of the inferred spin during its high soft sate. Moreover, the hardness ratio, the non-thermal luminosity and the reflection fraction also undergo an evolution, exactly coincident to the period when the inferred spin transition takes place. The unphysical evolution of the spin is attributed to the evolution of the inner disc, which is caused by the collapse of a hot corona due to condensation mechanism or may be related to the deceleration of a jet-like corona. The studies of the inner disc radius and the relation between the disc luminosity and the inner disc radius suggest that, only at a particular epoch, did the inner edge of the disc reach the innermost stable circular orbit and the spin measurement is reliable. We then constrain the spin of MAXI J1820+070 to be a*=0.2^{+0.2}_{-0.3}. Such a slowly spinning black hole possessing a strong jet suggests that its jet activity is driven mainly by the accretion disc rather than by the black hole spin., Comment: 14 pages, 13 figures, 5 tables, accepted for publication in MNRAS

Fast radio bursts (FRBs) are short pulses observed in radio band from cosmological distances. One class of models invoke soft gamma-ray repeaters (SGRs), or magnetars, as the sources of FRBs. Some radio pulses have been observed from some magnetars, however, no FRB-like events had been detected in association any magnetar burst, including one giant flare. Recently, a pair of FRB-like bursts (FRB 200428 hereafter) separated by milliseconds (ms) were detected from the general direction of the Galactic magnetar SGR J1935+2154. Here we report the detection of a non-thermal X-ray burst in the 1-250 keV energy band with the Insight-HXMT satellite, which we identify as emitted from SGR J1935+2154. The burst showed two hard peaks with a separation of 34 ms, broadly consistent with that of the two bursts in FRB 200428. The delay time between the double radio and X-ray peaks is about 8.57 s, fully consistent with the dispersion delay of FRB 200428. We thus identify the non-thermal X-ray burst is associated with FRB 200428 whose high energy counterpart is the two hard peaks in X-ray. Our results suggest that the non-thermal X-ray burst and FRB 200428 share the same physical origin in an explosive event from SGR J1935+2154., 24 pages, 9 figures, 6 tables; initial submission to a journal on May 9th, 2020. Significant changes include updated localization and detailed spectral evolution of the X-ray burst, and better determination of the two narrow X-ray peaks corresponding to the two radio pulses. Conclusions are strengthened. Nature Astronomy online on Feb. 18, 2021

A black hole X-ray binary produces hard X-ray radiation from its corona and disk when the accreting matter heats up. During an outburst, the disk and corona co-evolves with each other. However, such an evolution is still unclear in both its geometry and dynamics. Here we report the unusual decrease of the reflection fraction in MAXI J1820+070, which is the ratio of the coronal intensity illuminating the disk to the coronal intensity reaching the observer, as the corona is observed to contrast during the decay phase. We postulate a jet-like corona model, in which the corona can be understood as a standing shock where the material flowing through. In this dynamical scenario, the decrease of the reflection fraction is a signature of the corona's bulk velocity. Our findings suggest that as the corona is observed to get closer to the black hole, the coronal material might be outflowing faster., 11 pages, 5 figures; published in Nature Communications; An artist's impression of Figure 5 is updated here, and the animation is available at http://youbei.work/research/

Recently, the system parameters of Cygnus X-1, i.e., the black hole mass M, the orbital inclination i and the source distance D, have been updated. As the input constraints of the continuum-fitting method, it is necessary to refine the spin with these new parameters. The Hard X-ray Modulation Telescope (HXMT, also named Insight) was successfully launched on June 15th, 2017 in China. In this work, we analyzed spectra obtained by the Insight-HXMT during 2017-2018 and re-estimated the spin via the continuum-fitting method. We first re-estimated the spin using old parameters and found the dimensionless spin parameter to be a ⁎ > 0.934 (3σ), which is consistent with previous measurements both from the continuum-fitting and iron-line fitting methods ( Gou et al. 2011 , Gou et al. 2014 ; Fabian et al. 2012 , Walton et al. 2016 , Tomsick et al. 2018 ). Then, when the new parameters were applied, we obtained an increased spin: a ⁎ > 0.967 (3σ), which is also consistent with the recent measurement (Zhao et al. 2020, submitted to ApJ) and also confirms an extreme Kerr black hole lying in this system.

A new black hole X-ray binary (BHXRB) MAXI J1535-571 was discovered by MAXI during its outburst in 2017. Using observations taken by the first Chinese X-ray satellite, the Hard X-ray Modulation Telescope (dubbed as Insight-HXMT), we perform a joint spectral analysis (2-150 keV) in both energy and time domains. The energy spectra provide the essential input for probing the intrinsic Quasi-Periodic Oscillation (QPO) fractional rms spectra (FRS). Our results show that during the intermediate state, the energy spectra are in general consistent with those reported by Swift/XRT and NuSTAR. However, the QPO FRS become harder and the FRS residuals may suggest the presence of either an additional power-law component in the energy spectrum or a turn-over in the intrinsic QPO FRS at high energies.

We study the 2018 outburst of Aql X-1 via the monitor of all sky X-ray image (MAXI) data. We show that the outburst starting in February 2018 is a member of short-low class in the frame of outburst duration and the peak count rate although the outburst morphology is slightly different from the other fast-rise-exponential-decay (FRED) type outbursts with a milder rising stage. We study the partial accretion in the weak propeller stage of Aql X-1 via the MAXI data of the 2018 outburst. We report on the spectral analysis of 3 observations of Aquila X-1 obtained by Insight – hard X-ray modulation telescope (Insight-HXMT) during the late decay stage of the 2018 outburst. We discuss that the data taken by Insight-HXMT is just after the transition to the weak propeller stage. Our analysis shows the necessity of a comptonization component to take into account the existence of an electron cloud resulting photons partly up-scattered.

We present a detailed timing study of the brightest persistent X-ray source Sco X-1 using the data collected by the Hard X-ray Modulation Telescope ( I n s i g h t -HXMT) from July 2017 to August 2018. A complete Z-track hardness-intensity diagram (HID) is obtained. The normal branch oscillations (NBOs) at ∼ 6 Hz in the lower part of the normal branch (NB) and the flare branch oscillations (FBOs) at ∼ 16 Hz in the beginning part of the flaring branch (FB) are found in observations with the Low Energy X-ray Telescope (LE) and the Medium Energy X-ray Telescope (ME) of I n s i g h t -HXMT, while the horizontal branch oscillations (HBOs) at ∼ 40 Hz and the kilohertz quasi-periodic oscillations (kHz QPOs) at ∼ 800 Hz are found simultaneously above 20 keV for the first time on the horizontal branch (HB) by the High Energy X-ray Telescope (HE) and ME. We find that for all types of the observed QPOs, the centroid frequencies are independent of energy, while the root mean square (rms) increases with energy; the centroid frequencies of both the HBOs and kHz QPOs increase along the Z-track from the top to the bottom of the HB; and the NBOs show soft phase lags increasing with energy. A continuous QPO transition from the FB to NB in ∼ 200 s are also detected. Our results indicate that the non-thermal emission is the origin of all types of QPOs, the innermost region of the accretion disk is non-thermal in nature, and the corona is nonhomogeneous geometrically.

We present a spectral study of the black hole candidate MAXI J1348-630 during its 2019 outburst, based on monitoring observations with Insight-HXMT and Swift. Throughout the outburst, the spectra are well fitted with power-law plus disk-blackbody components. In the soft-intermediate and soft states, we observed the canonical relation L ~ T_in^4 between disk luminosity L and peak colour temperature T_in, with a constant inner radius R_in (traditionally identified with the innermost stable circular orbit). At other stages of the outburst cycle, the behaviour is more unusual, inconsistent with the canonical outburst evolution of black hole transients. In particular, during the hard rise, the apparent inner radius is smaller than in the soft state (and increasing), and the peak colour temperature is higher (and decreasing). This anomalous behaviour is found even when we model the spectra with self-consistent Comptonization models, which take into account the up-scattering of photons from the disk component into the power-law component. To explain both those anomalous trends at the same time, we suggest that the hardening factor for the inner disk emission was larger than the canonical value of ~1.7 at the beginning of the outburst. A more physical trend of radii and temperature evolution requires a hardening factor evolving from ~3.5 at the beginning of the hard state to ~1.7 in the hard intermediate state. This could be evidence that the inner disk was in the process of condensing from the hot, optically thin medium and had not yet reached a sufficiently high optical depth for its emission spectrum to be described by the standard optically-thick disk solution., 20 pages, 10 figures, 4 tables, accepted by ApJ

We report spectral and timing analysis of the black hole transient MAXI J1631–479 during the hard intermediate state of its 2019 outburst from the Insight-Hard X-ray Modulation Telescope (Insight-HXMT) observations. We find that the energy dependence of the type-C quasi-periodic oscillation (QPO) frequency evolves with time: during the initial rise of a small flare (∼MJD 58526.0-58527.1), the QPO frequency increases with increasing energy from ∼1 to ∼100 keV, and then the frequency remains constant after MJD 58527.1. We discover a possible new phenomenon of Fe line’s QPO frequency jump that has never been observed for other black hole transients: during the small flare, the QPO frequency around the Fe line energy is higher than any other energy band, with the frequency difference Δf = 0.25 ± 0.08 Hz between 5.5–7.5 keV and other energy bands. The spectral analysis shows that the evolution of QPOs is related to the equivalent width of the narrow Fe line, and its equivalent width increases during this small flare. We propose that the QPO frequency difference results from the differential precession of a vertically extended jet, and the higher QPO frequency of Fe line could be caused by the layered jet when the jet scale increases. At the same time, the evolution of QPOs is related to the accretion rate, while the energy dependence of QPOs supports the existence of deceleration in the vertically distributed jet.

We report the energy-resolved broadband timing analysis of the black hole X-ray transient MAXI J1631-479 during its 2019 outburst from February 11 to April 9, using data from the Insight-Hard X-ray Modulation Telescope (Insight-HXMT), which caught the source from its hard intermediate state to the soft state. Thanks to the large effective area of Insight-HXMT at high energies, we are able to present the energy dependence of fast variability up to ~100 keV. Type-C quasi-periodic oscillations (QPOs) with frequency varying between 4.9 Hz and 6.5 Hz are observed in the 1-100 keV energy band. While the QPO fractional rms increases with photon energy from 1 keV to ~10 keV and remains more or less constant from ~10 keV to ~100 keV, the rms of the flat-top noise first increases from 1 keV to ~8 keV then drops to less than 0.1% above ~30 keV. We suggest that the disappearance of the broadband variability above 30 keV could be caused by the non-thermal acceleration in the Comptonizing plasma. At the same time, the QPOs could be produced by the precession of either a small-scale jet or a hot inner flow model., To be published in The Astrophysical Journal

The evidences for the influence of thermonuclear (type-I) X-ray bursts upon the surrounding environments in neutron star low-mass X-ray binaries (LMXB) were detected previously via spectral and timing analyses. Benefitting from a broad energy coverage of Insight-HXMT, we analyze one photospheric radius expansion (PRE) burst, and find an emission excess at soft X-rays. Our spectral analysis shows that, such an excess is not likely relevant to the disk reflection induced by the burst emission and can be attributed to an enhanced pre-burst/persistent emission. We find that the burst and enhanced persistent emissions sum up to exceed Eddington luminosity by ∼ 40 percentages. We speculate that the enhanced emission is from a region beyond the PRE radius, or through the Comptonization of the corona.

In this paper, we presented a detailed timing analysis of a prominent outburst of 4U 0115+63 detected by \textit{Insight}-HXMT in 2017 August. The spin period of the neutron star was determined to be $3.61398\pm 0.00002$ s at MJD 57978. We measured the period variability and extract the orbital elements of the binary system. The angle of periastron evolved with a rate of $0.048\pm0.003$ $yr^{-1}$. The light curves are folded to sketch the pulse profiles in different energy ranges. A multi-peak structure in 1-10 keV is clearly illustrated. We introduced wavelet analysis into our data analysis procedures to study QPO signals and perform a detailed wavelet analysis in many different energy ranges. Through the wavelet spectra, we report the discovery of a QPO at the frequency $\sim 10$ mHz. In addition, the X-ray light curves showed multiple QPOs in the period of $\sim 16-32 $ s and $\sim 67- 200 $ s. We found that the $\sim100$ s QPO was significant in most of the observations and energies. There exist positive relations between X-ray luminosity and their Q-factors and S-factors, while the QPO periods have no correlation with X-ray luminosity. In wavelet phase maps, we found that the pulse phase of $\sim 67- 200 $ s QPO drifting frequently while the $\sim 16-32 $ s QPO scarcely drifting. The dissipation of oscillations from high energy to low energy was also observed. These features of QPOs in 4U 0115+63 provide new challenge to our understanding of their physical origins., 14 pages, 9 figures, and 6 tables. This work has been submitted to MNRAS after the referee's report

Based on Insight-HXMT data, we report on the pulse fraction evolution during the 2017–2018 outburst of the newly discovered first Galactic ultraluminous X-ray (ULX) source Swift J0243.6+6124. The pulse fractions of 19 observation pairs selected in the rising and fading phases with similar luminosity are investigated. The results show a general trend of the pulse fraction increasing with luminosity and energy at supercritical luminosity. However, the relative strength of the pulsation between each pair evolves strongly with luminosity. The pulse fraction in the rising phase is larger at luminosity below 7.71 × 1038 erg s−1, but smaller at above. A transition luminosity is found to be energy independent. Such a phenomenon is first confirmed by Insight-HXMT observations and we speculate that it may have relation with the radiation-pressure-dominated accretion disc.

We present the observational results from a detailed timing analysis of the black hole candidate EXO 1846–031 during its outburst in 2019 with the observations of Insight-HXMT, NICER and MAXI. This outburst can be classified roughly into four different states. Type-C quasi-periodic oscillations (QPOs) observed by NICER (about 0.1–6 Hz) and Insight-HXMT (about 0.7–8 Hz) are also reported in this work. Meanwhile, we study various physical quantities related to QPO frequency. The QPO rms–frequency relationship in the energy band 1–10 keV indicates that there is a turning pointing in frequency around 2 Hz, which is similar to that of GRS 1915+105. A possible hypothesis for the relationship above may be related to the inclination of the source, which may require a high inclination to explain it. The relationships between QPO frequency and QPO rms, hardness, total fractional rms and count rate have also been found in other transient sources, which can indicate that the origin of type–C QPOs is non-thermal.

Low-frequency quasi-periodic oscillations (LFQPOs) are commonly found in black hole X-ray binaries, and their origin is still under debate. The properties of LFQPOs at high energies (above 30 keV) are closely related to the nature of the accretion flow in the innermost regions, and thus play a crucial role in critically testing various theoretical models. The Hard X-ray Modulation Telescope (Insight-HXMT) is capable of detecting emissions above 30 keV, and is therefore an ideal instrument to do so. Here we report the discovery of LFQPOs above 200 keV in the new black hole MAXI J1820+070 in the X-ray hard state, which allows us to understand the behaviours of LFQPOs at hundreds of kiloelectronvolts. The phase lag of the LFQPO is constant around zero below 30 keV, and becomes a soft lag (that is, the high-energy photons arrive first) above 30 keV. The soft lag gradually increases with energy and reaches ~0.9s in the 150-200 keV band. The detection at energies above 200 keV, the large soft lag and the energy-related behaviors of the LFQPO pose a great challenge for most currently existing models, but suggest that the LFQPO probably originates from the precession of a small-scale jet., 36 pages, 12 figures, 3 tables; published in Nature Astronomy

We study the evolution of the temporal properties of MAXI 1820+070 during the 2018 outburst in its hard state from MJD 58190 to 58289 with Insight-HXMT in a broad energy band 1-150 keV. We find different behaviors of the hardness ratio, the fractional rms and time lag before and after MJD 58257, suggesting a transition occurred at around this point. The observed time lags between the soft photons in the 1-5 keV band and the hard photons in higher energy bands, up to 150 keV, are frequency-dependent: the time lags in the low-frequency range, 2-10 mHz, are both soft and hard lags with a timescale of dozens of seconds but without a clear trend along the outburst; the time lags in the high-frequency range, 1-10 Hz, are only hard lags with a timescale of tens of milliseconds; first increase until around MJD 58257 and decrease after this date. The high-frequency time lags are significantly correlated to the photon index derived from the fit to the quasi-simultaneous NICER spectrum in the 1-10 keV band. This result is qualitatively consistent with a model in which the high-frequency time lags are produced by Comptonization in a jet., Comment: Accepted for publication in ApJ

We report on our analysis of the 2019 outburst of the X-ray accreting pulsar 4U 1901+03 observed with Insight-HXMT and NICER. Both spectra and pulse profiles evolve significantly in the decaying phase of the outburst. Dozens of flares are observed throughout the outburst. They are more frequent and brighter at the outburst peak. We find that the flares, which have a duration from tens to hundreds of seconds, are generally brighter than the persistent emission by a factor of $\sim$ 1.5. The pulse profile shape during the flares can be significantly different than that of the persistent emission. In particular, a phase shift is clearly observed in many cases. We interpret these findings as direct evidence of changes of the pulsed beam pattern, due to transitions between the sub- and super-critical accretion regimes on a short time scale. We also observe that at comparable luminosities the flares' pulse profiles are rather similar to those of the persistent emission. This indicates that the accretion on the polar cap of the neutron star is mainly determined by the luminosity, i.e., the mass accretion rate., 11 pages, 8 figures, accepted for publication in MNRAS

No robust detection of prompt electromagnetic counterparts to fast radio bursts (FRBs) has yet been obtained, in spite of several multi-wavelength searches carried out so far. Specifically, X/gamma-ray counterparts are predicted by some models. We planned on searching for prompt gamma-ray counterparts in the Insight-Hard X-ray Modulation Telescope (Insight-HXMT) data, taking advantage of the unique combination of large effective area in the keV-MeV energy range and of sub-ms time resolution. We selected 39 FRBs that were promptly visible from the High-Energy (HE) instrument aboard Insight-HXMT. After calculating the expected arrival times at the location of the spacecraft, we searched for a significant excess in both individual and cumulative time profiles over a wide range of time resolutions, from several seconds down to sub-ms scales. Using the dispersion measures in excess of the Galactic terms, we estimated the upper limits on the redshifts. No convincing signal was found and for each FRB we constrained the gamma-ray isotropic-equivalent luminosity and the released energy as a function of emission timescale. For the nearest FRB source, the periodic repeater FRB180916.J0158+65, we find $L_{\gamma,iso}, Comment: 15 pages, 3 figures, 6 tables, accepted by A&A

We report on the observation of the accreting pulsar GRO J1008-57 performed by Insight-HXMT at the peak of the source's 2017 outburst. Pulsations are detected with a spin period of 93.283(1) s. The pulse profile shows double peaks at soft X-rays, and only one peak above 20 keV. The spectrum is well described by the phenomenological models of X-ray pulsars. A cyclotron resonant scattering feature is detected with very high statistical significance at a centroid energy of $E_{\rm cyc}=90.32_{-0.28}^{+0.32}$ keV, for the reference continuum and line models, HIGHECUT and GABS respectively. Detection is very robust with respect to different continuum models. The line energy is significantly higher than what suggested from previous observations, which provided very marginal evidence for the line. This establishes a new record for the centroid energy of a fundamental cyclotron resonant scattering feature observed in accreting pulsars. We also discuss the accretion regime of the source during the Insight-HXMT observation., Comment: 8 pages, 3 figures, accepted for publication in ApJL

A link between magnetars and fast radio burst (FRB) sources has finally been established. In this context, one of the open issues is whether/which sources of extra galactic FRBs exhibit X/gamma-ray outbursts and whether it is correlated with radio activity. We aim to constrain possible X/gamma-ray burst activity from one of the nearest extragalactic FRB sources currently known over a broad energy range, by looking for bursts over a range of timescales and energies that are compatible with being powerful flares from extragalactic magnetars. We followed up the as-yet nearest extragalactic FRB source at a mere 149 Mpc distance, the periodic repeater FRB180916.J0158+65, during the active phase on February 4-7, 2020, with the Insight-Hard X-ray Modulation Telescope (HXMT). Taking advantage of the combination of broad band, large effective area, and several independent detectors available, we searched for bursts over a set of timescales from 1 ms to 1.024 s with a sensitive algorithm, that had previously been characterised and optimised. Moreover, through simulations we studied the sensitivity of our technique in the released energy-duration phase space for a set of synthetic flares and assuming different energy spectra. We constrain the possible occurrence of flares in the 1-100 keV energy band to E, 10 pages, 3 figures, accepted by A&A

We investigate the absorption and emission features in observations of GX 301-2 detected with Insight-HXMT/LE in 2017-2019. At different orbital phases, we found prominent Fe Kalpha, Kbeta and Ni Kalpha lines, as well as Compton shoulders and Fe K-shell absorption edges. These features are due to the X-ray reprocessing caused by the interaction between the radiation from the source and surrounding accretion material. According to the ratio of iron lines Kalpha and Kbeta, we infer the accretion material is in a low ionisation state. We find an orbital-dependent local absorption column density, which has a large value and strong variability around the periastron. We explain its variability as a result of inhomogeneities of the accretion environment and/or instabilities of accretion processes. In addition, the variable local column density is correlated with the equivalent width of the iron Kalpha lines throughout the orbit, which suggests that the accretion material near the neutron star is spherically distributed., Comment: 10 pages, 5 figures, 2 tables, accepted for publication in MNRAS

LE is the low energy telescope of Insight-HXMT. It uses swept charge devices (SCDs) to detect soft X-ray photons. The time response of LE is caused by the structure of SCDs. With theoretical analysis and Monte Carlo simulations we discuss the influence of LE time response (LTR) on the timing analysis from three aspects: the power spectral density, the pulse profile and the time lag. After the LTR, the value of power spectral density monotonously decreases with the increasing frequency. The power spectral density of a sinusoidal signal reduces by a half at frequency 536 Hz. The corresponding frequency for QPO signals is 458 Hz. The Root mean square (RMS) of QPOs holds the similar behaviour. After the LTR, the centroid frequency and full width at half maxima (FWHM) of QPOs signals do not change. The LTR reduces the RMS of pulse profiles and shifts the pulse phase. In the time domain, the LTR only reduces the peak value of the crosscorrelation function while it does not change the peak position. Thus it will not affect the result of the time lag. When considering the time lag obtained from two instruments and one among them is LE, a 1.18 ms lag is expected caused by the LTR. The time lag calculated in the frequency domain is the same as that in the time domain., Comment: 11 pages, 9 figures

Glitches correspond to sudden jumps of rotation frequency ($\nu$) and its derivative ($\dot{\nu}$) of pulsars, the origin of which remains not well understood yet, partly because the jump processes of most glitches are not well time-resolved. There are three large glitches of the Crab pulsar, detected in 1989, 1996 and 2017, which were found to have delayed spin-up processes before the normal recovery processes. Here we report two additional glitches of the Crab pulsar occurred in 2004 and 2011 for which we discovered delayed spin up processes, and present refined parameters of the largest glitch occurred in 2017. The initial rising time of the glitch is determined as $, Comment: 25 pages, 8 figures

The X9.3 flare SOL20170906T11:55 was observed by the CsI detector aboard the first Chinese X-ray observatory Hard X-ray Modulation telescope (Insight-HXMT). By using wavelets method, we report about 22 s quasiperiodic pulsations(QPPs) during the impulsive phase. And the spectra from 100 keV to 800 keV showed the evolution with the gamma-ray flux, of a power-law photon index from $\sim 1.8$ before the peak, $\sim 2.0$ around the flare peak, to $\sim 1.8$ again. The gyrosynchrotron microwave spectral analysis reveals a $36.6 \pm 0.6 \arcsec$ radius gyrosynchrotron source with mean transverse magnetic field around 608.2 Gauss, and the penetrated $\ge$ 10 keV non-thermal electron density is about $10^{6.7} \mathrm{cm}^{-3}$ at peak time. The magnetic field strength followed the evolution of high-frequency radio flux. Further gyrosynchrotron source modeling analysis implies that there exists a quite steady gyrosynchrotron source, the non-thermal electron density and transverse magnetic field evolution are similar to higher-frequency light curves. The temporally spectral analysis reveals that those non-thermal electrons are accelerated by repeated magnetic reconnection, likely from a lower corona source., Comment: 14 pages, 9 figures, accept for publication by ApJ

We present a detailed spectral-timing analysis of the Kilohertz quasiperiodic oscillations (kHz QPOs) in Sco X-1 using the data of the Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer (RXTE) and the Hard X-ray Modulation Telescope (Insight-HXMT). The energy band with detectable kHz QPOs is studied for the first time: on the horizontal branch, it is ∼6.89–24.01 and ∼8.68–21.78 keV for the upper and lower kHz QPOs, respectively, detected by the RXTE, and ∼9–27.5 keV for the upper kHz QPOs by the Insight-HXMT; on the lower normal branch, the energy band is narrower. The fractional root mean square (rms) of the kHz QPOs increases with energy at a lower energy, reaches a plateau at about 16 and 20 keV for the lower and upper peaks, and then levels off though with a large uncertainty. The simulation of the deadtime effect of RXTE/PCA shows that the deadtime does not affect much the search of the kHz QPOs but makes the rms amplitude underestimated. No significant QPO is detected below ∼6 keV as shown by the RXTE data, implying that the kHz QPOs do not originate from the blackbody emission of the accretion disk and neutron star surface. In addition, with the combined analysis of the energy spectra and the absolute rms spectra of kHz QPOs, we suggest that the kHz QPOs in Sco X-1 originate from the Comptonization of the inner part of the transition layer, where the rotation sets the frequency and the inward bulk motion makes the spectrum harder.

We present the analysis of the brightest flare that was recorded in the \emph{Insight}-HMXT data set, in a broad energy range (2$-$200 keV) from the microquasar GRS~1915+105 during an unusual low-luminosity state. This flare was detected by \emph{Insight}-HXMT among a series of flares during 2 June 2019 UTC 16:37:06 to 20:11:36, with a 2-200 keV luminosity of 3.4$-$7.27$\times10^{38}$ erg s$^{-1}$. Basing on the broad-band spectral analysis, we find that the flare spectrum shows different behaviors during bright and faint epochs. The spectrum of the flare can be fitted with a model dominated by a power-law component. Additional components show up in the bright epoch with a hard tail and in the faint epoch with an absorption line $\sim$ 6.78 keV. The reflection component of the latter is consistent with an inner disk radius $\sim$ 5 times larger than that of the former. These results on the giant flare during the "unusual" low-luminosity state of GRS~1915+105 may suggest that the source experiences a possible fast transition from a jet-dominated state to a wind-dominated state. We speculate that the evolving accretion disk and the large-scale magnetic field may play important roles in this peculiar huge flare.

In LTE, the two inner satellite lines (ISLs) and the two outer satellite lines (OSLs) of the NH$_{3}$ (1,1) transition are each predicted to have equal intensities. However, hyperfine intensity anomalies (HIAs) are observed to be omnipresent in star formation regions, which is still not fully understood. In addressing this issue, we find that the computation method of the HIA by the ratio of the peak intensities may have defects, especially when being used to process the spectra with low velocity dispersions. Therefore we define the integrated HIAs of the ISLs (HIA$_{\rm IS}$) and OSLs (HIA$_{\rm OS}$) by the ratio of their redshifted to blueshifted integrated intensities and develop a procedure to calculate them. Based on this procedure, we present a systematic study of the integrated HIAs in the northern part of the Orion A MC. We find that integrated HIA$_{\rm IS}$ and HIA$_{\rm OS}$ are commonly present in the Orion A MC and no clear distinction is found at different locations of the MC. The medians of the integrated HIA$_{\rm IS}$ and HIA$_{\rm OS}$ are 0.921$\pm$0.003 and 1.422$\pm$0.009, respectively, which is consistent with the HIA core model and inconsistent with the CE model. Selecting those 170 positions where both integrated HIAs deviate by more than 3-$\sigma$ from unity, most (166) are characterized by HIA$_{\rm IS}$1, which suggests that the HIA core model plays a more significant role than the CE model. The remaining four positions are consistent with the CE model. We compare the integrated HIAs with the para-NH$_{3}$ column density ($N$(para-NH$_{3}$)), kinetic temperature ($T_{\rm K}$), total velocity dispersion ($\sigma_{\rm v}$), non-thermal velocity dispersion ($\sigma_{\rm NT}$), and the total opacity of the NH$_{3}$ (1,1) line ($\tau_{0}$). Their correlations can not be fully explained by neither the HIA core nor the CE model., Comment: 12 pages, 10 figures, accepted for publication in A&A

We present a Principal Component-based Radiative Transfer Model (PCRTM) and a retrieval algorithm that can be used to effectively explore the information content of the hyperspectral remote sensing data from infrared to solar spectral regions.

Desert dust storms strongly affect the environment and significantly contribute to climate forcing. The regional impact of desert dust storms depends on the vertical distribution of dust plumes resulting from long-range transport. Dust layers can impact chemical balances, atmospheric stability or cloud properties in the vicinity of the altitude at which they are transported and also at other altitudes. Near the surface, dust can directly affect air quality and settle down on the surface by dry deposition. The quantification of such impacts are highly uncertain, particularly due to the sporadic character of dust emissions as well as the large variability of dust properties and occurrence linked to the meteorological controls. In the current presentation, we describe the daily evolution of the three-dimensional (3D) structure of a major dust outbreak initiated by an extratropical cyclone over East Asia in early March 2008, using new aerosol retrievals derived from satellite observations of IASI (Infrared Atmospheric Sounding Interferometer). For this, we have developed a novel auto-adaptive Tikhonov-Philips-type approach called AEROIASI to retrieve vertical profiles of dust extinction coefficient at 10 μm for most cloud-free IASI pixels, both over land and ocean. The dust vertical distribution derived from AEROIASI is shown to agree remarkably well with along-track transects of CALIOP space-borne lidar vertical profiles (mean biases less than 110 m, correlation of 0.95 and precision of 260 m for mean altitudes of the dust layers). AEROIASI allows the daily characterization of the 3D transport pathways across East Asia of two dust plumes originating from the Gobi and North Chinese deserts. From AEROIASI retrievals, we provide evidence that (i) both dust plumes are transported over the Beijing region and the Yellow Sea as elevated layers above a shallow boundary layer, (ii) as they progress eastwards, the dust layers are lifted up by the ascending motions near the core of the extratropical cyclone and (iii) when being transported over the warm waters of the Japan Sea, turbulent mixing in the deep marine boundary layer leads to high dust concentrations down to the surface. AEROIASI observations and model simulations also show that the progression of the dust plumes across East Asia is tightly related to the advancing cold front of the extratropical cyclone.

Satellite thermal infrared (IR) spectral emissivity data have been shown to be significant for atmospheric research and monitoring the Earth's environment. Long-term and large-scale observations that are needed for global monitoring and research can only be supplied by satellite-based remote sensing. Presented here is the global surface IR emissivity data retrieved from the last five and half years of Infrared Atmospheric Sounding Interferometer (IASI) measurements observed from the MetOp-A satellite. Monthly mean surface properties (i.e., skin temperature Ts and spectral emissivity eν) with a spatial resolution of 0.5 × 0.5-degrees latitude-longitude are produced to monitor seasonal and inter-annual variations. Continental IR spectral emissivity derived from satellite ultraspectral IR measurements reveals its variation depending on surface weather and climate conditions. Variation behaviors of continental IR spectral emissivity, associated with the seasonal change as well as weather and climate conditions are initially captured by IASI measurements and will be continuously monitored as provided by the satellite measurements. Surface eν retrieved with IASI measurements can be used to assist in monitoring surface weather and surface climate change. Surface eν together with Ts from current and future operational weather satellites can be utilized as a means of long-term and large-scale monitoring of Earth's surface weather environment and associated changes.

Advanced satellite sensors are tasked with improving global-scale measurements of the Earth's atmosphere, clouds, and surface to enable enhancements in weather prediction, climate monitoring, and environmental change detection. Measurement system validation is crucial to achieving this goal and maximizing research and operational utility of resultant data. Field campaigns employing satellite under-flights with well-calibrated Fourier Transform Spectrometer (FTS) sensors aboard high-altitude aircraft are an essential part of this validation task. The National Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System (NPOESS) Airborne Sounder Testbed-Interferometer (NAST-I) has been a fundamental contributor in this area by providing coincident high spectral and spatial resolution observations of infrared spectral radiances along with independently-retrieved geophysical products for comparison with like products from satellite sensors being validated. This manuscript focuses on validating infrared spectral radiance from the Infrared Atmospheric Sounding Interferometer (IASI) through a case study analysis using data obtained during the recent Joint Airborne IASI Validation Experiment (JAIVEx) field campaign. Emphasis is placed upon the benefits achievable from employing airborne interferometers such as the NAST-I since, in addition to IASI radiance calibration performance assessments, cross-validation with other advanced sounders such as the AQUA Atmospheric InfraRed Sounder (AIRS) is enabled.

The Infrared Atmospheric Sounding Interferometer (IASI) is an ultra-spectral satellite sensor with 8461 spectral channels. IASI spectra contain high information content on atmospheric, cloud, and surface properties. The instrument presents a challenge for using thousands of spectral channels in a physical retrieval system or in a Numerical Weather Prediction (NWP) data assimilation system. In this paper we describe a method of simultaneously retrieving atmospheric temperature, moisture, and cloud properties using all available IASI channels without sacrificing computational speed. The essence of the method is to convert the IASI channel radiance spectra into super-channels by an Empirical Orthogonal Function (EOF) transformation. Studies show that about 100 super-channels are adequate to capture the information content of the radiance spectra. A Principal Component-based Radiative Transfer Model (PCRTM) is used to calculate both the super-channel magnitudes and derivatives with respect to atmospheric profiles and other properties. A physical retrieval algorithm then performs an inversion of atmospheric, cloud, and surface properties in the super channel domain directly therefore both reducing the computational need and preserving the information content of the IASI measurements. While no large-scale validation has been performed on any retrieval methodology presented in this paper, comparisons of the retrieved atmospheric profiles, sea surface temperatures, and surface emissivities with co-located ground- and aircraft-based measurements over four days in Spring 2007 over the South-Central United States indicate excellent agreement.

Infrared ultra-spectral spectrometers have brought in a new era in satellite remote atmospheric sounding capability. During the 1970s, after the implementation of the first satellite sounding instruments, it became evident that much higher vertical resolution sounding information was needed to be able to forecast life and property threatening localized severe weather. The demonstration of the ultra-spectral radiance measurement technology required to achieve higher vertical resolution began in 1985, with the aircraft flights of the High resolution Interferometer Sounder (HIS) instrument. The development of satellite instruments designed to have a HIS-like measurement capability was initiated in the late 1980's. Today, after more than a decade of development time, the Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) and the Infrared Atmospheric Sounding Interferometer (IASI) are now operating successfully from the Aqua and MetOp polar orbiting satellites. The successful development and ground demonstration of the Geostationary Imaging Fourier Transform Spectrometer (GIFTS), during this decade, is now paving the way toward the implementation of the ultra-spectral sounding capability on the international system of geostationary environmental satellites. This note reviews the evolution of the satellite ultra-spectral sounding systems, shows examples of current polar satellite sounding capability, and discusses future advances planned for geostationary orbit.

Atmospheric thermodynamic parameters, such as atmospheric temperature and moisture profiles, cloud optical/microphysical properties, and surface properties are basic meteorological variables for weather forecasting. In addition, they are critical parameters in tropospheric chemistry studies. A physical, geophysical parameter retrieval scheme dealing with cloudy and cloud-free radiances observed with satellite ultraspectral infrared sounders has been developed to determine simultaneously surface, atmospheric thermodynamic, and cloud microphysical parameters. A one-dimensional variational (1-D Var.) multivariable inverse solution of the radiative transfer equation is used to iteratively improve a background state defined by eigenvector regression. This algorithm has been applied to data from the Infrared Atmospheric Sounding Interferometer (IASI) on the EUMETSAT Metop-A satellite. The IASI retrieved parameters presented herein are from radiance data gathered during the Joint Airborne IASI Validation Experiment (JAIVEx). JAIVEx provided intensive aircraft observations obtained from airborne Fourier Transform Spectrometer (FTS) systems, such as the NPOESS Airborne Sounder Testbed – Interferometer (NAST-I), in-situ measurements, and dedicated dropsonde and radiosonde measurements for the validation of the IASI products. Here, IASI atmospheric profile retrievals are compared with those obtained from dedicated dropsondes, radiosondes, and the airborne FTS system. The IASI examples presented here demonstrate the ability to retrieve fine-scale horizontal features with high vertical resolution from satellite ultraspectral sounder radiance spectra.

During the Chesapeake Lighthouse and Aircraft Measurements for Satellites (CLAMS), the National Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System (NPOESS) Airborne Sounder Testbed-Interferometer (NAST-I), flying aboard the high-altitude Proteus aircraft, observed the spatial distribution of infrared radiance across the 650–2700 cm−1 (3.7–15.4 μm) spectral region with a spectral resolution of 0.25 cm−1. NAST-I scans cross track with a moderate spatial resolution (a linear ground resolution equal to 13% of the aircraft altitude at nadir). The broad spectral coverage and high spectral resolution of this instrument provides abundant information about the surface and three-dimensional state of the atmosphere. In this paper, the NAST-I measurements and geophysical product retrieval methodology employed for CLAMS are described. Example results of surface properties and atmospheric temperature, water vapor, ozone, and carbon monoxide distributions are provided. The CLAMS NAST-I geophysical dataset is available for use by the scientific community.

The NAST-I and SHIS ultra spectral interferometer sounders flew on the NASA ER-2 aircraft during the May 2013 S-NPP Calibration/Validation Campaign. The ER-2 under flew the Metop-A and –B, Aqua, and SNPP satellites, which carry the IASI, AIRS, and CrIS ultra spectral sounding instruments, respectively. Special ground truth radiosonde and surface based upward viewing ultraspectral radiance Planetary boundary Layer (PBL) sounding observations (i.e., from the AERI and the ASSIST interferometer spectrometers) were obtained at the DOE Southern Great Plains (SGP) ARM CART-site and from a mobile ground site located in Yuma, Arizona. A common physical/statistical sounding retrieval algorithm and statistical database have been applied to the aircraft, ground-based interferometer, and satellite ultra spectral radiance data in order to use the higher spatial resolution aircraft data and higher vertical resolution surface-based interferometer PBL soundings, and radiosonde profiles, to validate the satellite sounding products. Differences between the satellite and the surface/airborne ground “truth” measurements are discussed. In particular, the comparisons between the satellite retrieved profiles and the ground truth observations revealed that improvements in the specification of surface emissivity spectra were needed in order to retrieve accurate atmospheric structure in the Planetary Boundary Layer (PBL). As a result a physical simultaneous surface skin/surface emissivity determination algorithm was implemented which improved the accuracy of atmospheric profiles retrieved throughput the lower trophosphere. Here, special emphasis is given to validating the satellite atmospheric stability and time tendency observations made prior to the development of the devastating Moore, OK tornado on May 20, 2013.

We present accuracy requirements for specific kinetic parameters used to calculate the populations and vibrational temperatures of the H2O(010) and H2O(020) states in the terrestrial mesosphere. The requirements are based on rigorous simulations of the retrieval of mesospheric water vapor profiles from measurements of water vapor infrared emission made by limb scanning instruments on orbiting satellites. Major improvements in the rate constants that describe vibration-to- vibration exchange between the H2O(010) and 02(1) states are required in addition to improved specification of the rate of quenching Of O2(1) by atomic oxygen (0). It is also necessary to more accurately determine the yield of vibrationally excited O2(l) resulting from ozone photolysis. A contemporary measurement of the rate of quenching of H2O(010) by N2 and O2 is also desirable. These rates are either highly uncertain or have never before been measured at atmospheric temperatures. The suggested improvements are necessary for the interpretation of water vapor emission measurements at 6.8 microns to be made from a new spaceflight experiment in less than 2 years. The approach to retrieving water vapor under non-LTE conditions is also presented.

Radiative emission from transitions involving the vibration-rotation bands of ozone in the 9.6 µm spectral region is readily detected by limb-scanning instruments on orbiting satellites and such measurements are used to infer the ozone profile in the middle atmosphere. In the terrestrial mesosphere and lower thermosphere these transitions are predicted to depart from local thermodynamic equilibrium (LTE). The occurrence of non-LTE complicates the interpretation of emission measurements in terms of the ozone abundance as the vibrational temperatures must be known a priori or calculated directly as part of the retrieval process. This in turn requires accurate knowledge of various kinetic and spectroscopic parameters used in a statistical equilibrium model to calculate the vibrational temperatures. Through detailed simulations of the forward and inverse retrieval problem we find that in order to achieve retrieved ozone concentrations accurate to 15% the collisional quenching rates must be known to better than 25% accuracy and that the distribution of energy within ozone upon recombination of O and O2 must be significantly improved. Collisional quenching rates are currently uncertain by more than a factor of 2.

Limb infrared spectral measurements of the 9.6-μm mesospheric ozone airglow were made by the Cryogenic Infrared Radiance Instrumentation for Shuttle (CIRRIS-IA) during one flight of the space shuttle Discovery (April 28 th to May 6 th 1991). A significant difference between ozone nightglow and dayglow is observed. The measured spectrally integrated ozone ν 3 fundamental band radiance profile is used to retrieve the ozone (ν 3 = 1) excited state density. Modeled ozone (ν 3 = 1) vibrational temperatures are used to infer the total ozone density. Night and day ozone abundance profiles inferred from ozone 9.6-μm infrared spectral emissions and comparisons with photochemical model calculations are reported. The observed ozone abundance is significantly larger than predicted by the photochemical model.