Astron. Astrophys. Suppl. Ser. 138, 569-570

The AGILE contribution to GRBs studies

M. Tavani^1,2 - G. Barbiellini³ - P. Caraveo¹ - V. Cocco⁴ - E. Costa⁷ - G. Di Cocco⁶ - C. Labanti⁶ - F. Longo³ - S. Mereghetti¹ - A. Morselli⁴ - A. Pellizzoni⁵ - P. Picozza⁴ - L. Piro⁷ - M. Prest³ - S. Vercellone¹

Send offprint request: F. Longo: longof@ts.infn.it

1 - Istituto di Fisica Cosmica "G. Occhialini'', CNR, Milano, Italy
2 - Columbia University, New York, U.S.A.
3 - University of Trieste and INFN, Trieste, Italy
4 - University of Roma "Tor Vergata" and INFN, Roma, Italy
5 - Agenzia Spaziale Italiana, Roma, Italy
6 - Istituto di Tecnologie e Studio delle Radiazioni Extraterrestri, CNR, Bologna, Italy
7 - Istituto di Astrofisica Spaziale, CNR, Roma, Italy

Received January 21; accepted May 28, 1999

Abstract:

AGILE is a gamma-ray mission planned to be operating as an Observatory during the period 2002-2005. Its baseline instrument is designed to detect gamma rays in the $30~{\rm MeV} - 50~{\rm GeV}$ band. AGILE's good sensitivity, very large field of view ($\sim 1/5$ of the whole sky), and excellent timing capability ($\sim 1$ ms deadtime) are ideal to study gamma-ray bursts (GRBs). AGILE is expected to detect $\sim$10 GRBs per year at energies above 100 MeV. The Super-AGILE option might be able to localize GRBs within a few arcminutes and provide additional information in the hard X-ray band. A rapid alert program is an essential part of the scientific goals of the AGILE Observatory.

Key words: gamma-ray: bursts