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XMM-Newton Guest Observer Facility

THE XMM-NEWTON ABC GUIDE, STREAMLINED

Fit OM + EPIC Spectrum with XSpec

Data from OM and EPIC (and/or RGS) can be analyzed in XSpec using the usual methods. For this example, the data set is from the Lockman Hole (ObsID 0123700101) observation for which we reprocessed EPIC and OM data. We will use the rebinned MOS1 spectrum, with headers that have already been edited so XSpec will automatically load the response files. (The OM PHA files have headers that are automatically set to the canned response files). The χ2 statistic is fine for our purposes.

   ftools
   xspec
   data 1 mos1_pi_h_bin20.fits # read in the EPIC source spectrum and any 
                               # affiliated data from the header file
   data 2 om_src.pi{1-4}       # read in the OM's data in the 4 filters
   ignore bad                  # discard channels with poor quality
   ignore 1 **-0.5 3.-**       # in the first spectrum, consider only data between 0.5-3.0 keV
   cpd /xw                     # change the plotting device to xwindows
   setplot energy              # plot in energy space
   setplot xlog on
   setplot ylog on
   model powerlaw              # define the model and initial parameter values; let's work with the 
   <enter>                     # default values, so press "enter" until we return to the prompt
   <enter>
   renorm
   fit
   plot data ratio
Let's adjust the axis limits to make things easier to see.
   iplot
   rescale y 1.e-3 1.e4
   rescale x 0.0015 4.
   quit                        # return to normal XSpec prompt
   quit                        # quit XSpec
The fit is shown in Figure 1.

Figure 1: A powerlaw fit to data from OM's four filters (V: cyan, U: blue, UVW1: green, UVW2: red) and MOS1 (black).

More information about XSpec, including models and walk-throughs, can be found here.


If you have any questions concerning XMM-Newton send e-mail to xmmhelp@lists.nasa.gov

This file was last modified on Tuesday, 19-Nov-2013 17:08:40 EST
Curator:Michael Arida (ADNET); michael.arida@nasa.gov

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