ROSAT Status Report #184: ROSAT NEWS No.74

[Michael Arida <arida@milkyway.gsfc.nasa.gov>]

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=              ROSAT NEWS No. 74     ---    9-August-2001               =
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=                 ROSAT Scientific Data Center at the                   =
=       Max-Planck-Institut fuer Extraterrestrische Physik (MPE)        =
=               Postfach 1312, D-85741 Garching, Germany                =
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=  e-mail address: rosat_svc@mpe.mpg.de                                 =
=  ROSAT Service Area (including ROSAT Data Archive):                   =
=   www address:   http://wave.xray.mpe.mpg.de/rosat                    =
=   ftp address:   ftp://ftp.xray.mpe.mpg.de/rosat   or                 =
=                  ftp.xray.mpe.mpg.de    user: anonymous               =
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RELEASE OF THE COMPLETED ROSAT SOURCE CATALOGS OF POINTED OBSERVATIONS
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The ROSAT Consortium (the Max-Planck-Institut fuer extraterrestrische
Physik, the Goddard Space Flight Center, the Smithsonian Astrophysical
Observatory, Leicester University, and the Astrophysikalisches Institut
Potsdam) announces the release of the completed source catalogs of
all ROSAT pointed observations.

"THE SECOND ROSAT SOURCE CATALOG OF POINTED OBSERVATIONS WITH THE
POSITION SENSITIVE PROPORTIONAL COUNTER (ROSPSPC / 2RXP)" (*)
contains arcsecond positions and count rates of 100,048 detected sources
from 5182 ROSAT PSPC observations covering 17.3% of the sky,
including 54,133 high confidence detections and 2637 obvious sources
which were not detected by the automated Standard Analysis Software
System (SASS).

"THE SECOND ROSAT SOURCE CATALOG OF POINTED OBSERVATIONS WITH THE
POSITION SENSITIVE PROPORTIONAL COUNTER WITH FILTER (ROSPSPCF / 2RXF)" (*)
contains arcsecond positions and count rates of 1966 detected sources
from 258 ROSAT PSPC Filter observations covering 0.15% of the sky,
including 704 high confidence detections and 20 obvious sources
which were not detected by the SASS.

"THE FIRST ROSAT SOURCE CATALOG OF POINTED OBSERVATIONS WITH THE
HIGH RESOLUTION IMAGER (ROSHRICAT / 1RXH)"
contains arcsecond positions and count rates of 56,401 detected sources
from 5393 ROSAT HRI observations covering 1.94% of the sky,
including 13,452 high confidence detections and 331 obvious sources
which were not detected by the SASS.

The catalogs consist of all primary source parameters from the automated
detection algorithm employed by the SASS.  In addition each observation
has been quality checked, both by automatic algorithms and by detailed
visual inspection.  The results of this quality checking are contained
as a set of logical-value flags for each principal source parameter.
If a source parameter is suspect, the associated flag is set to "TRUE";
parameters with no obvious problems maintain the default, "FALSE",
value.

In addition to the catalog, data products for each screened observation
are also available.  The PSPC data products include the screened source
lists, source spectra, and results from the spectral and variability
analysis.  The HRI data products include the screened source lists
and FITS images.

Detailed information about the catalog and methods of access to the
catalog and data products can be obtained from the ROSAT Results Archive
web pages in Germany, in the US, and in the UK:

http://wave.xray.mpe.mpg.de/rosat/rra
http://www.aip.de/groups/xray/rosat/rra.html
http://heasarc.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/rosat/rra/RRA.html
http://hea-www.harvard.edu/rosat/rsdc_www/rra.html
http://ledas-www.star.le.ac.uk/rosat/rra/

The ROSAT Source Catalogs will be modified if necessary. New versions
will be announced on the RRA web sites at MPE, GSFC, SAO, AIP and
Leicester.


(*) The First ROSAT Source Catalog of Pointed Observations with the
PSPC (1RXP) (Voges et al, ROSAT News No. 32, 01-Nov-1994) was based on
data processed with revision 0 or 1 of SASS.  The current PSPC catalogs
are completely based on data processed with revision 2 of SASS; most
of the improvements are described in Voges et al, AA 349, 389 (1999).
Moreover, a substantial effort has been expended in evaluating the
basic source parameters and the resulting source and field flags are
an integral part of the second catalog.

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