ROSAT Guest Observer Facility

ROSAT Status Report #33:

Oct 1, 1992


1-Oct 1992: A distribution of MPE Status Report # 11


=========================================================================
=                                                                       =
=              ROSAT NEWS No. 11   ---     1-Oct-1992                   =
=                                                                       =
=-----------------------------------------------------------------------=
=                 ROSAT Scientific Data Center at the                   =
=          Max-Planck Institut fuer Extraterrestrische Physik           =
=                Giessenbachstrasse, 8046 Garching, FRG                 =
=-----------------------------------------------------------------------=
=  e-mail address (Uli Zimmermann): MPE or 28773::ROSAT_SVC (SPAN) or   =
=           ROSAT_SVC@mpe.mpe-garching.mpg.de (Internet) or             =
=                  45890090218::ROSAT_SVC (DatexP)                      =
= ROSAT Service Area read-access - SPAN: type MPE::SVC_ROOT:[-]help.doc =
=      via ftp: ftp 130.183.70.1  user ROSAT_SVC no(empty) password     =
=-----------------------------------------------------------------------=
=   XUV Center: 29382::GXUVDC or  GXUVDC@AIT.PHYSIK.UNI-TUEBINGEN.DE    =
=========================================================================

SATELLITE and INSTRUMENT STATUS

No serious problems with either the satellite or the instruments were encountered since the last issue.

MISSION PLANNING

Next call for proposals

AO-4 will be issued on November 15 with a deadline of February 1, 1993. AO-4 observations are planned to start in June 1993. Since the PSPC gas supply is estimated to finish by the end of 1993, it is planned to carry out PSPC only observations between June and December 1993. Detailed rules for the AO4 proposals will be advertised later, but guest investigators should already now be alerted that the number of HRI observations in AO-4 in the ROSAT observing program should be increased significantly.

Timelining

The current timeline extends through December 8, 1992. The timeline for the rest of AO-3 (through June 1993) will be produced in November. The following statistics demonstrates that the bulk part of the observations is carried out according to plan.

As of September 24 the processed image time (screened accepted time) and the number of sequences (targets) is distributed as follows:

              Time(ksec)          # of sequences (targets)
Germany         6758                   1012
UK              1928                    222
USA             8354                    831

Total          17042                   2065

101 high priority observations (less than 10 percent of the total) need to be reobserved because 70 percent of the requested image time was not achieved.

PROCESSING STATUS

The Standard Processing of Rosat data keeps well up with the incoming data stream. Most of the problems encountered during the processing of older observations have been resolved. Difficulties with a rest of about one dozen observations (mostly HRI) are hoped to be overcome in the next few weeks.

A reprocessing of all data from the Pointed Observation Phases, the so-called Rev-1 processing (the initial processing is named Rev-0), is planned to be started in November this year. This is to overcome different handicaps and errors (e.g. with timing information and attitude screening) that are present in many of the Rev-0 data products. As compensation for the difficulties in the Rev-0 data, the Rev-1 data will be given exclusively to the relevant PI for a period of half a year. Thereafter also these Rev-1 products will be transferred to the Public Archives.

ROSAT DATA PRODUCTS GUIDE

The Rosat Data Products Guide for the PSPC is ready. In the current version it describes the hardcopy outputs from the standard analysis SASS version 5_10. The Products Guide will be enclosed to the SASS protocols when new data is sent to the PI. SASS currently runs version 5_10 and updates to the Products Guide will be produced whenever new processing versions are applied.

ROSAT PUBLIC DATA ARCHIVE

Beginning November 1, 1992 the ROSAT Public Data Archive (ROPDA) will start its service. Initially a few hundred ROSAT observations from the early Calibration phase and the begin of the Pointed Phase will be publicly available for retrieval. Further target data will be added to the ROSAT Data Archive on a monthly basis as soon as the one year proprietory phase (after sending the data to the PI) has exhausted. The file PUB_ARCH.CONTENT (subdirectory ARCHIVE in the ROSAT Service Area) will contain an always actual compilation of all publicly available target data.

Data, listed in PUB_ARCH.CONTENT, may be requested from the archive by filling the attached form and sending it to the Scientific Data Center via e-mail, fax or letter (see addresses in the header). Please understand that we cannot accept and hold for later service requests for target data that are not yet in the list. Because of size considerations - a typical dataset is about 15 Mbytes - we presently will distribute data only on cassettes/tapes (see available media on the request form).

The archive will initially contain data in 2 different formats. All data originating from proposals sent to the German and the UK Data Centers will be stored and delivered in EXSAS compatible FITS format; the US target data, on the other hand, will be stored and delivered in the US PROS compatible format. EXSAS users have already now the possibility to read event files in the PROS compatible format and will be able to process also the attitude, orbit and rate information. The US will change their data format to a so-called 'rationalized FITS format' later this year.

Datasets in the Public Archive will comprise photon event files, images and auxiliary files like attitude, orbit and instrument housekeeping. In addition the newest calibration files will be delivered. In contrast to the dataset sent originally to the PI's, the archive datasets will not contain any result information like source lists and source analysis protocols. To provide homogeneous quality result informations will be only available after a reprocessing of the data (planned to start in November this year) and a thorough checking has taken place. A special ROSAT Result Database will then be built up to allow easy access and retrieval of that data.

EXSAS

A test version of MIDAS - November 92 is just under compatibility check with our EXSAS software.

APPENDIX:

=========================================================================
=                                                                       =
=                                                                       =
=                 ROSAT Public Data Archive Request Form                =
=                                                                       =
=-----------------------------------------------------------------------=
=  Please send completed forms to one of the following addresses:       =
=  by e-mail:         MPE or 28773::ROSAT_SVC (SPAN) or                 =
=                     ROSAT_SVC@mpe.mpe-garching.mpg.de (Internet)      =
=                     45890090218::ROSAT_SVC (DatexP)                   =
=  by FAX:            (0)89-3299 3569                                   =
=  by letter:         ROSAT Scientific Data Center at the               =
=                     MPI fuer Extraterrestrische Physik                =
=                     Giessenbachstrasse, 8046 Garching, FRG            =
=                                                                       =
=========================================================================

NAME, FIRST_NAME of REQUESTOR:

INSTITUTION:

ADDRESS:





TELEPHONE:                          FAX:

E-MAIL ADDRESS:

MEDIUM  (indicate one of the following (tape not recommended):

             +-------------+--+-------------+--+-------------+--+ 
             |EXABYTE      |  |DAT(DDS)     |  |TAPE 6250 bpi|  |
             +-------------+--+-------------+--+-------------+--+ 


Requested target data:

+----+------------+----------+--------+----------------------------------+
|  # | SEQ Number  | Detector | Filter | Target name (optional)          |
|----+-------------+----------+--------+---------------------------------+
|  1 |             |          |        |                                 |
|  2 |             |          |        |                                 |
|  3 |             |          |        |                                 |
|  4 |             |          |        |                                 |
|  5 |             |          |        |                                 |
|  6 |             |          |        |                                 |
|  7 |             |          |        |                                 |
|  8 |             |          |        |                                 |
|  9 |             |          |        |                                 |
| 10 |             |          |        |                                 |
| 11 |             |          |        |                                 |
| 12 |             |          |        |                                 |
| 13 |             |          |        |                                 |
| 14 |             |          |        |                                 |
| 15 |             |          |        |                                 |
+----+-------------+----------+--------+---------------------------------+

#           running number of request
SEQ NUMBER  6-digit identification of the proposal/target (e.g. 400077)
DETECTOR    P for PSPC  H for HRI
FILTER      none or F for the Boron filter 


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