Timing calibration of the X-ray Imaging Spectrometer on board Suzaku

We report current status of the timing calibration of the X-ray Imaging Spectrometer (XIS) on board Suzaku. The XIS is designed to be flexible enough and can be operated in various clocking modes. Since the absolute timing accuracy of the Hard X-ray Detector (HXD) was calibrated to be better than 360 microseconds, we calibrated the XIS timing accuracy referring to the HXD data. We employed Hercules X-1 and Cygnus X-1 for the calibration taking into account of the energy dependence of their time variations. We found no significant offset in the XIS time assignment in the normal mode (with burst/window options), whereas a marginal offset of 30 +/- 16 ms was found in the Parallel-Sum mode.
Meeting Information: The 3rd Suzaku international Conference "Energetic Cosmos : from Suzaku to ASTRO-H" (June 29-July 2, 2009. Grand Park Otaru Hotel), Otaru, Hokkaido Japan
Meeting sponsors: The University of Tokyo, The Institute of Physical and Chemical Research, The Japan Society for the Promotion of Science