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GSFC XMM-Newton GOF Status Report #188: XMM-NEWTON NEWS #109



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_/           XMM-NEWTON  NEWS   #109   ---  01-Jul-2010           _/
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              XMM-Newton Science Operations Centre at
               ESA's European Space Astronomy Centre,
P.O. Box - Apdo. 78, 28691 Villanueva de la Canada, 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_news/news_list/index.php

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Contents:

  - XMM-Newton Workshop "Ultra-Luminous X-ray sources and Middle Weight
    Black Holes": presentations available on-line
  - Release of a new version of the EPIC Calibration Status Document
  - New fitted Time Correlation Files (TCX) for XMM-Newton observations
  - XMM-Newton Users Group: minutes of meeting and presentations
    available
  - Patch to SAS version 10.0
  - Call for XMM-Newton results with potential for ESA press releases


XMM-Newton Workshop "Ultra-Luminous X-ray sources and Middle Weight
Black Holes": presentations available on-line
===================================================================

The  XMM-Newton  Workshop  "Ultra-Luminous  X-ray sources  and  Middle
Weight Black Holes"  (see issue #95 of this  Newsletter) took place at
the European Space  Astronomy Centre (ESAC) near Madrid  from the 24th
to the  26th of May 2010.  About seventy astronomers  from Europe, USA
and Japan attended the workshop.

Presentations  of the workshop  and the  group pictures  are available
on-line at:

http://xmm.esac.esa.int/external/xmm_science/workshops/2010_science/

Refereed workshop proceedings will be published as a regular issue of
"Astronomische Nachrichten (Astronomical Notes)" in 2011.


Release of a new version of the EPIC Calibration Status Document
================================================================

A  new version of  the EPIC  status of  calibration and  data analysis
document (Issue 2.10) is now available at:

http://xmm2.esac.esa.int/external/xmm_sw_cal/calib/

This document  reflects the current calibration status  and is aligned
with  SASv10.0 (see  issue #107  of this  Newsletter).   A significant
refinement  of   the  pn  redistribution   is  embodied  in   the  new
EPN_REDIST_0011.CCF,  released in  mid-June. Better  agreement between
the  observed and  predicted  PATTERN distributions  as calculated  by
"epatplot"  for  EPIC-pn  Timing  Mode  exposures is  ensured  by  the
EPN_QUANTUMEFF_0017.CCF,  which  includes   for  the  first  time  the
RAWY-dependency of the PATTERN fraction in this mode.


New fitted Time Correlation Files (TCX) for XMM-Newton observations
===================================================================

Improved Time Correlation Files (TCX)  are being generated for ODFs in
the  XMM-Newton   Science  Archive  (see   also  issue  #89   of  this
Newsletter). They  reduce the scatter of  absolute timing measurements
in  individual observations  from 100  to less  than  70 micro-seconds
(1-sigma). Users are  referred to Sect. 1.6 of the  new version of the
EPIC  Calibration   Status  Document   (see  previous  item   of  this
Newsletter) for further details.

More information on  how to retrieve the new TCX  or updated ODF files
is available at:

http://xmm.esac.esa.int/external/xmm_products/tcx_recovery/


XMM-Newton Users Group: minutes of meeting and presentations available
======================================================================

The XMM-Newton  Users Group met  on the 12th  and 13th of May  2010 at
ESAC. The minutes were approved on the 23rd of June and are available,
together with the presentations of the meeting, at:

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


Patch to SAS version 10.0
=========================

A second small patch to  the recently released SAS 10.0.0 version (see
issues #106 and #108 of this Newsletter) has been released on the 28th
of  June, 2010.   The patch  includes a  fix of  the  task "evselect",
related  to a  problem in  the derivation  of light  curves  with time
binning close to  the CCD frame times, and  an extra initialization of
FITSIO  within  "esas",  to   avoid  problems  under  MacOS  operating
systems. We  took the  opportunity to release  an upgraded  version of
epiclccorr with improved exposure  correction, and modified the signal
to noise calculation by the task "specgroup".

For more information and to download this patch, please go to:

http://xmm.esac.esa.int/sas/current/sas_news.shtml


Call for XMM-Newton results with potential for ESA press releases
=================================================================

We are looking forward to  hearing from you about exciting new results
obtained  with  XMM-Newton observations.   Such  results represent  an
important support for the mission.

The   XMM-Newton   team  does   not   have   dedicated  resources   to
systematically  monitor  astro-ph  and  the published  literature  for
interesting new  material.  However, ESA  does have a  Media Relations
Service team, who will  help arranging appropriate publicity and press
releases. Please remember that they  can only start the work once they
know  that a  result is  available  and that  they need  some time  to
accommodate the story, since  press releases are organised for several
projects.

Contact us through the helpdesk at:

http://xmm.esac.esa.int/external/xmm_user_support/helpdesk.shtml



Yours sincerely,
XMM-Newton SOC

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