ROSAT Status 127: MPE NEWS #40, plus ESAS bug warning

[REQUEST@rosat.gsfc.nasa.gov]

		ROSAT Status Report #127
		   5 July 1995


Contents:  SATELLITE STATUS
           AO-6 PROPOSAL SUBMISSION
           SOFTWARE for EXTENDED SOURCE ANALYSIS (ESAS)
	   ESAS bug *warning*
           INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE 'R"ONTGENSTRAHLUNG FROM THE UNIVERSE'




=========================================================================
=                                                                       =
=              ROSAT NEWS No. 40   ---      5-July-1995                 =
=                                                                       =
=-----------------------------------------------------------------------=
=                 ROSAT Scientific Data Center at the                   =
=       Max-Planck-Institut fuer Extraterrestrische Physik (MPE)        =
=               Postfach 1603, D-85740 Garching, Germany                =
=-----------------------------------------------------------------------=
=  e-mail addresses (Uli Zimmermann):                                   =
=   rosat_svc@mpe-garching.mpg.de (Internet) or  MPE::ROSAT_SVC (SPAN)  =
=  ROSAT Service Area (including ROSAT Data Archive):                   =
=   ftp rosat_svc.mpe-garching.mpg.de      user: anonymous              =
=   WWW address:  http://rosat_svc.mpe-garching.mpg.de/                 =
=   interactive account (including ROSAT Result Archive):               =
=     telnet xray.mpe-garching.mpg.de  user: xray  no password          =
=-----------------------------------------------------------------------=
=  XUV Center: 29382::GXUVDC or  GXUVDC@AIT.PHYSIK.UNI-TUEBINGEN.DE     =
=   WFC Archive access via telnet/ftp ait.physik.uni-tuebingen.de       =
=                                user: xuv  (password: xuv_archive)     =
=========================================================================



SATELLITE STATUS 
================
All operations during the last month ran without major problems.


AO-6 PROPOSAL SUBMISSION 
========================
The number of A06 proposals received by the German RSDC was 193, a slight 
increase over the corresponding number for AO5.  The total number of 
requested ROSAT pointings is 931 with a total observing time of 
18 528 ksec.  This has to be compared to the total time available to
German guest observers, which is approximately 4900 ksec. In other words,
the pressure factor is close to 4 : 1.

The corresponding numbers for the UK are 55 proposals with a pressure 
factor of again 4 : 1 and 175 proposals submitted in the US with a 
pressure factor of almost 5 : 1.

After the initial selection of the proposals by the national committees
the ROSAT IUC (International User Committee) will decide on the final
acceptance in its meeting on July 26/28.


SOFTWARE for EXTENDED SOURCE ANALYSIS
=====================================
The ESAS package is the Extended Source Analysis Software prepared by 
Steve Snowden at GSFC. Software is now available to cast exposure maps 
and model particle-background maps for HRI observations.  Software to 
mosaic multiple exposures in a region is also now available. As with 
previous programs in the ESAS package, the new ones are stand-alone 
FORTRAN 77 routines relying on FITSIO to access the data in observation 
data sets.  The new software has been extensively used locally but is 
still in beta-site testing, so any bugs or suggestions should be reported 
to Snowden (snowden@lheavx.gsfc.nasa.gov).  The software, along with a 
cookbook (cookbook.tex) and README file, is located in the 
legacy.gsfc.nasa.gov anonymous ftp area: rosat/software/fortran/sxrb

*************************************************************************
ESAS Bug Warning

Thanks to Ian Hutchinson at Leicester, a bug in the RATE program of the
Extended Source Analysis Software has been found and corrected.  The error
caused the particle background count rate to be incorrectly calculated.
Luckily, the effect on the analysis of observation data sets is minor with
only small changes in the the reduced chi square value in the fits of 
RATE_FIT and the number of long-term enhancement counts determined by the 
program LTE.  Using test data, these differences were on the few percent
level.

The corrected program can be found in the ESAS software directory in the 
LEGACY anonymous ftp area:  /rosat/software/fortran/sxrb
*************************************************************************


INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE 'R"ONTGENSTRAHLUNG FROM THE UNIVERSE'
==============================================================
Most recent information on the conference is available via the ROSAT 
Service Area (directory general/xray-conf; access see header) or 
via www services, see  http://rosat_svc.mpe-garching.mpg.de/xray-conf/