Performance of SPI point-source data analysis

Performances of SPI data analyses of point sources are assessed using the Crab observations gathered during the first year of INTEGRAL operations. At low and intermediate signal-to-noise (SIN) ratios, the errors for both positions and fluxes provided by the imaging reconstruction program spiros are perfectly consistent with the distributions of the results of independent analyses. For higher S/N, spiros underestimates the real uncertainties, certainly because it does not take into account systematic errors, which can become comparable, or even larger, than statistical ones. Realistic source confusion tests are carried out by adding simulated data to the Crab observation. These tests demonstrate that spurious results can be obtained when the source separation is equal or smaller than 2 degrees. However, reliable flux values can be obtained for closer sources if their positions are fixed in the data deconvolution process.