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GSFC XMM-Newton GOF Status Report #119: XMM-NEWTON NEWS #57



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_/            XMM-NEWTON NEWS #57   ---    27-June-2006           _/
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              XMM-Newton Science Operations Centre at
               ESA's European Space Astronomy Centre,
            P.O. Box - Apdo. 50727, 28080 Madrid, Spain

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SOC Home Page:
   http://xmm.esac.esa.int/
Helpdesk web interface:
   http://xmm.esac.esa.int/external/xmm_user_support/helpdesk.shtml
Helpdesk email address:
   xmmhelp@sciops.esa.int
News Mailing List:
   http://xmm.esac.esa.int/external/xmm_user_support/xmm_news/

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Contents:
         - XMM-Newton long-term scheduling plan
         - Users Group Meeting
         - New EPIC 'blank sky' background events files
         - XMM-Newton Science Archive (XSA) version 3.0 on-line
         - Suzaku Conference 2nd Announcement
	

XMM-Newton long-term scheduling plan
====================================

The scheduling of the fourth XMM-Newton observing cycle
observations, AO5, started in May 2006 and is expected to end by
May 2007. On June 6, a long-term scheduling plan for the AO5
period was released at:

  http://xmm.esac.esa.int/external/xmm_sched/advance_plan.shtml

Principal Investigators of pending XMM-Newton observations
are encouraged to check this plan, especially if scheduling
constraints were granted following the Time Allocation
Committee recommendations. All observers should be aware
that, as flexibility is required in the scheduling process,
the long term plan only fills about 50% of the available observing
time, using some 50% of the approved observations. Consequently
about 50% of the approved observations do not appear in the
long term plan. The full observing plan is only available
some two to four weeks in advance of the start of a revolution.
It is intended to follow the long term plan as closely as possible.
The XMM-Newton SOC nevertheless reserves the right to modify
it at any stage of the scheduling process, should this become
necessary.


Users Group Meeting
===================

The XMM-Newton Users Group met on the 18th and 19th of May 2006 at
ESAC. Please find the agenda, presentations and minutes of this
meeting at:

  http://xmm.esac.esa.int/external/xmm_user_support/usersgroup/


New EPIC 'blank sky' background events files
============================================

The EPIC Background Working Group announces the release of new
XMM-Newton 'blank sky' background events files for the 3 EPIC
instruments in each of their different instrument/mode/filter
combinations, and constructed using superpositions of data from
many pointed observations generated using the 2XMM reprocessing
version of the SAS.

Files such as these have proved extremely useful in the analysis
of diffuse or extended sources which cover a large area of the
detector field of view, thus preventing the usage of any 'local'
background. Various software tools are also available for
manipulating these blank sky files.

The files and related software are available from the SOC
website at:

  http://xmm.esac.esa.int/external/xmm_sw_cal/background/blank_sky.shtml


XMM-Newton Science Archive (XSA) version 3.0 on-line
====================================================

The XMM-Newton Slew Survey Catalogue (XMMSL1) is now available and
fully integrated in XSAv3.0. XMMSL1 is the first catalogue of X-ray
sources found in slew data taken from the European Space Agency's
(ESA) XMM-Newton observatory. It has been constructed by members of
the XMM SOC and the EPIC consortium on behalf of ESA. The so called
"Clean" catalogue covers an area of more than 5000 square degrees
(at a detection likelihood higher than 10) and comprises more than
2700 sources. The median flux limit is ~8.5x10^{-12} cgs in the
hard (2-10 keV) band, whereas in the soft band it already reaches a
comparable sensitivity level to the ROSAT All Sky Survey Bright
Source Catalogue. Please, refer to the following URL:

  http://xmm.esac.esa.int/external/xmm_science/slew_survey/xmmsl1_ug.shtml

for a detailed description of the catalogue and its content.

XSA users can access, browse and query the catalogue through the
standard XSA user interface (http://xmm.esac.esa.int/xsa/).
Search-in-a-cone, as well as source-specific queries (such as on
count rates, hardness ratios, quality flags or slew background
level) are available. Images, exposures maps and graphical
summaries illustrating the correlation between the XMMSL1 sources
and the Digital Sky Survey finding charts are among the products,
which can be downloaded through the XSA user interface.

A short "guided tour" of the XSA is available at the following URL:

  http://xmm.esac.esa.int/external/xmm_data_acc/xsa/docs/tour.shtml

together with a list of "how-to" Frequently Asked Questions:

  http://xmm.esac.esa.int/external/xmm_data_acc/xsa/docs/xsa_faq_usage.shtml


Suzaku Conference 2nd Announcement
==================================

The 2nd announcement of the international conference "The Extreme
Universe in the Suzaku Era", scheduled for December 4-8, 2006, at
Kyoto, Japan has been issued. Registration opened on May 1 with
the issue of the Call for papers. A key deadline is:

  September  1 - Deadline for papers.

Further details are available at the conference web page:

  http://www-cr.scphys.kyoto-u.ac.jp/conference/suzaku2006/



Yours sincerely,
XMM-Newton SOC
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XMM-NEWS mailing list
XMM-NEWS@xmm.vilspa.esa.es
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