GSFC XMM-Newton GOF Status Report #031: XMM Status

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

NASA/GSFC XMM GOF
XMM Status Report #31, XMM Status
19 June 2001

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1) Dates for AO-2

2) GO data are flowing

3) The first XMM-Newton general conference

4) The XMM-Newton Learning Center

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1) Dates for AO-2

The call for proposals for the next round of XMM-Newton GO observations
(AO-2) will be released on 3 September 2001 and will be due SIX WEEKS 
later. Please note the limited time between the release and due dates 
and plan accordingly.  AO-2 observations will begin in early summer 
2002 and continue for about one year.

2) GO data are flowing

The spigot has turned on for GO data from XMM-Newton.  Thus far data 
from about 37 exposures have been sent to US PIs.  The process follows
a somewhat complicated route with the satellite data first converted to
ODF files at Vilspa.  After ODF conversion the data are sent to the SSC
at Leicester University for pipeline processing.  When the pipelining
is complete the products are returned to Vilspa for cutting onto CDs 
and then distribution to PIs.  For data with US PIs, the CDs are air
freighted to the XMM-Newton GOF at GSFC (that's us) for archiving before
forwarding on to the PI.  To insure a minimum amount of delay for the PI, 
after ingestion into the archive the data are pgp encrypted and made 
available for downloading, with the pgp key provided to the PI.  Besides 
speeding access of the data to the PI, this provides a convenient and 
secure method for the PI to provide data to proposal Co-Is (should they 
want to).

3) The first XMM-Newton general conference

"New Visions of the X-ray Universe in the XMM-Newton and Chandra era"
will be held 26-30 November 2001 at ESTEC (Noordwijk, NL).  For more
information on the workshop, please go to:

         http://www.estec.esa.nl/conferences/01C12/

4) The XMM-Newton Learning Center

A completely remodeled XMM-Newton Learning center is open at

         http://heasarc.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/xmm_lc/
 
You'll find there information on X-ray astronomy, the instruments on-board
XMM-Newton, lesson plans, all the ESA press releases, and much more...
Check it out!

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