The Glast Burst Monitor

The Gamma-Ray Large Area Space Telescope (GLAST) will include a secondary instrument to augment the observatory's capabilities for GRB studies. The GLAST Burst Monitor (GBK is a collaboration between Marshall Space Flight Center, the University of Huntsville, Alabama, and the Max Plank Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics. The purpose of the GBM is to extend energy coverage below the main instrument's lower limit of about 20 MeV, and to provide an on-board burst trigger and approximate location. The instrument consists of twelve NaI detectors and two BGO detectors. This combination provides energy coverage from a few keV up to about 30 MeV.