Introduction

The ACIS calibration plan was to perform ground-based measurements on the ACIS camera, HRMA mirrors and the combined HRMA-ACIS system so as to verify the models of the sub-assembly and assembled system performance. The critical part of that process was conducted at the Marshall Space Flight Center X-Ray Calibration Facility (XRCF), using a carefully constructed set of tests.

This is the entire ACIS XRCF Measurement Plan, including ACIS-2C data from Phase F and Phase G as well as ACIS flight camera data from Phase H. Each class of tests is mentioned, with a brief narrative description of the intent of the set of measurements. We also present tables summarized from the ``as-requested'' CMDB (Calibration Measurement DataBase) for each type of test; these tables represent our best current record of the data obtained at XRCF, grouped according to the calibration goal that they satisfy.

As we describe the types of tests we list the descriptions for each test according to the TRW ID, and supplementary descriptive entries from the CMDB. The columns for all tables are defined below. These definitions were taken from the CMDB Web page; please refer there for more complete definitions (http://asc.harvard.edu/cal/expander/expander.cgi).

• TRW ID - A string uniquely identifying an XRCF measurement.
• source - The source used to generate X-rays for this test.
• energy - The specific energy you wish to be using, in keV.
• FP_Rate, Total_Cts - The estimated rate of detected counts in the focal plane, per second; the total number of counts expected for the whole test.
• Int_time - The integration time for this test, in seconds.
• mult - Multiplicity, the number of distinct XRCF configurations sampled in this test (e.g. the number of monochromator settings for each DCM test).
• pitch - The angular rotation of the HRMA about the XRCF Z axis, with positive numbers increasing ``down,'' in arcminutes.
• yaw - The angular rotation of the HRMA about the XRCF Y axis, with positive numbers increasing ``left'' (also known as ``south''), in arcminutes.
• yoff - The linear offset of the FAM in the XRCF Y direction (+Y is ``south''), in units of mm.
• zoff - The linear offset of the FAM in the XRCF Z direction (+Z is ``up''), in units of mm.
• Defocus - The linear offset of the FAM in the XRCF X direction (+X is towards the X-ray source), in units of mm.
• Focal - Focal plane choice, the detector in the focal plane for this test.
• HST - The ACIS chip monitored by the high-speed tap.
• frametime - The approximate amount of time in each ACIS exposure (the integration time, between CCD readouts), in seconds.
• proc_mode - The mode of ACIS processing.
• rows - The number of rows in the ACIS readout window.
• frames - The number of ACIS data frames taken during the measurement integration.