Space Telescopes and Instrumentation 2008: Ultraviolet to Gamma Ray
DOI: 10.1117/12.789182
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The Minicalorimeter (MCAL) is a scintillation detector onboard the Italian space mission AGILE, dedicated to gamma-ray and hard-X astrophysics and launched on 23 April, 2007. MCAL can work both as part of the gamma-ray imaging system and as an independent detector for gamma-ray burst (GRB) in the 350 keV - 100 MeV energy range. The on-board trigger logic is now enabled for burst search on timescales as short as 64 ms, leading to a detection rate of about one event/week. MCAL is particularly suitable for the detection of short-hard bursts and contributes to GRB localization through the Inter-Planetary Network (IPN).