ECLAIRs: the SVOM high-energy transient trigger camera

TL;DR

ECLAIRs is a coded mask camera on the SVOM mission designed for autonomous detection and localization of gamma-ray bursts, with detailed descriptions of its design, operation, and initial performance.

Contribution

This paper presents the design, implementation, and initial performance results of the ECLAIRs instrument on the SVOM mission, highlighting its capabilities for transient detection.

Findings

ECLAIRs successfully detected and localized gamma-ray transients in flight.

The instrument's in-flight performance matches pre-launch expectations.

ECLAIRs's science performance has been summarized up to March 2025.

Abstract

The core instrument of the SVOM Gamma-ray burst mission launched in June 2024 is the 4-150 keV 2-D coded mask camera ECLAIRs responsible for the autonomous trigger and localization of transient events within its field of view. The flight model of ECLAIRs has been built by several French labs (IRAP, CEA, APC) under the supervision of the French Space Agency (CNES), while APC, LUPM and IAP built a suite of data reduction and analysis software. This paper outlines the main science goals of ECLAIRs and describes the different instrument sub-systems and their main characteristics. The paper then discusses the instrument configuration and operation as well as the main in-flight measured performances. Finally, the paper summarizes the science performance of ECLAIRs up to March 31, 2025.