ROSAT Status Report #97:
July 5, 1994
Note: This status report comes from the The Max-Planck Institut für Extraterrestriche Physik (MPE).
Contents
- Satellite Status
- Mission Planning
- The End of the PSPC Program
- Property Rights to Reprocessed Data
- ROSAT Workshop III at MPE
- New Release of EXSAS/MIDAS
SATELLITE STATUS
No major problems were encountered during the last month.
MISSION PLANNING
Mid June the ROSAT IUC (International User Committee) made the final
selection on the AO-5 proposals. The list of accepted proposals can
be found in the ROSAT Service Area in directory 'timeline' (file
ao5.accepted).
(In the USA the accepted AO-5 targets list is now available on legacy under /rosat/timelines/ao5.targets).
Official end of the PSPC observing program and future PSPC observations
As part of the current timeline, which foresees a PSPC observing period once
per month, the PSPC will be moved into focus for a last seven-day period
lasting from June 30 to July 6, 1994. After this period, the regular
ROSAT PSPC guest observer program will be officially ended. During 4 years
of operation the two PSPCs onboard ROSAT have performed not only the most
comprehensive X-ray all-sky survey ever, but also 80 percent of ROSAT's pointed
observations amounting to some 3600 PSPC fields in total.
At this point, the PSPC gas tanks are almost empty. The residual gas pressure is approximately ten bars, which can be compared with 600 bars at launch in June 1990. The remaining gas will be saved for observations of very special importance. Such observations can be proposed on a TOO basis ("Super-TOO"). Corresponding proposals should be sent to:
- J. Trümper, MPE Garching
- Fax: 0049-89-3299 3569,
- e-mail: jtrumper@mpe-garching.mpg.de.
- Fax: 0049-89-3299 3569,
(For USA proposers, GSFC request that a CC: of any TOO request also be sent to Rob Petre at LHEAVX::PETRE, for our information).
If a Super-TOO observation is approved, the PSPC will need to be activated for several contiguous days in order to make the most efficient use of the gas supply (each activation requires flushing the detector). This implies that in addition to the TOO program a limited amount of PSPC observing time will become available again. This observing time will be used to complete priority A and B observations of AO's 1-4. In order to be selected, a priority A or B target previously must have gained less than 70 percent of the requested observing time, and it must be accessible at the chosen observing time. While some guest observers will benefit from this philosophy and obtain additional data, we emphasize that the target selection will be totally dependent on the chosen TOO and only a small fraction of the uncompleted A and B observations will be rescheduled.
PROPERTY RIGHTS for REPROCESSED DATASETS
All principal investigators (PI) of ROSAT observations, that have
originally been processed before January 1993, already have or will
receive their data once more: reprocessed (REV 2 processing) and in the
new FITS format (RDF). These reprocessed data belong, for a period of half
a year (starting from delivery), exclusively to the PI. Thereafter, they
will enter the ROSAT Data Archive (RDA) and replace the data processed
by REV 0 software. In addition, results from these observations will be
entered (after screening at the Data Centers) into the ROSAT Result
Archive (RRA). The RRA will open towards the end of the year.
Data processed after January 1993 are not affected by the main problem in REV 0 processing - occasional jumps of about 1 sec in the event time - and therefore reprocessed sets of these data will not be sent out but directly go to the archives.
ROSAT WORKSHOP III at MPE on OCTOBER 26 and 27
The success of the previous two ROSAT Workshops has convinced us to organize
also a 1994 meeting. Please mark the date, October 26 and 27 (Wed./Thu.),
in your planning for the autumn. Details will be announced in the next
ROSAT NEWS.
Around mid-July all EXSAS sites will receive new EXSAS software, fully compatible with the MAY94 version of MIDAS. This MIDAS version now supports also the OSF operating system on DEC Alpha machines, in addition to many UNIX flavors and VMS.
Beginning with that release, the most recent EXSAS software also will be placed in the ROSAT Service Area, from where it can be retrieved. It is planned that future releases of the software will be distributed on tape only on special request.
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