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The proportional counter array (PCA) is designed to perform microsecond timing of bright galactic sources and broad band, confusion limited, studies of faint extragalactic sources in the 2 - 60 keV x-ray band. The PCA was launched as part of the Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer (RXTE) satellite into a circular orbit of altitude 580 km and 23 degrees inclination on December 30, 1995. The mission contains three experiments: a set of large area xenon proportional counters sensitive from 2 - 60 keV (proportional counter array: PCA), a set of large area sodium iodide scintillators sensitive from 15 - 200 keV (high energy x-ray timing experiment: HEXTE), and three wide field of view scanning detectors which monitor most of the sky each orbit (all sky monitor: ASM). The goals of the mission are summarized by Swank et al. We present performance and calibration data on the measured and predicted in-orbit background, energy response, relative and absolute timing performance, and the operational possibilities made available with the high performance experiment data system (EDS) designed and built by MIT.
Jahoda et al. (Thu,) studied this question.