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4 Capability

The directional precision of this network is limited by the timing ability of the NEAR monitor. Unlike CGRO BATSE, Ulysses, or the GGS-Wind Konus experiment, this instrument does not have a GRB trigger or profile memory. The modification that was, in fact, heroically undertaken in flight was to enable continuous monitoring of the total gamma-ray rate on a one-second per readout basis. Since event profiles can be compared to somewhat finer resolution than one bin width (only if the event may be complex in profile and of sufficient duration), it is possible that, with NEAR at a distance of over 1200 light-seconds, the precision of the IPN GRB source localization can be as good as $\pm$ 1.5 arcmin.


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