Gamma-ray burst detection capabilities of comptel

The imaging gamma-ray telescope COMPTEL, capable of detecting gamma rays in the 1 to 30 MeV range, is one of four experiments onboard NASA's Gamma-Ray Observatory GRO. Besides its primary objectives COMPTEL will contribute to the understanding of cosmic gamma-ray bursts. Summarising, COMPTEL localises bursts (S (E > 1 MeV) ≥ 2.10 −6 erg/cm 2 ) within 1 sr FOV to better than 1° at medium gamma-ray energies, measures continuum energy spectra in the range 0.1 MeV to 20 MeV with fluence S ≥ 6.9 10 −7 erg/cm 2 (5 σ , E≥100 keV), measures gamma-ray lines with detector resolution 9.6% (at 0.5 MeV) and 7.0% (at 1.5 MeV) and determines time histories of both gamma-ray line and continuum emission with t ≥ 0.1 sec resolution.