[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Search]
[Main Index]
[Thread Index]
[HEASARC Mailing List Archives]
GSFC XMM-Newton GOF Status Report #208: XMM-NEWTON NEWS #118
_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/
_/ _/
_/ XMM-NEWTON NEWS #118 --- 24-Jan-2011 _/
_/ _/
_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/
XMM-Newton Science Operations Centre at
ESA's European Space Astronomy Centre,
P.O. Box - Apdo. 78, 28691 Villanueva de la Canada, Madrid, Spain
_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/
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
_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/
Contents:
- Cross Calibration Status document update
- Release of new EPIC-pn long-term CTI
- Release of RGS/EPIC-pn Rectification Factors
- Anticipated timeline for next XMM-Newton Announcement of
Opportunity: AO-11
- New XMM-Newton SOC Web page
- Workshop Announcement: "XXL: The Ultimate XMM Extragalactic Survey"
Cross Calibration Status document update
========================================
The cross-calibration among the XMM-Newton instruments as well as
between XMM-Newton and other missions is regularly monitored. An
update of the document describing its status, aligned with SASv10.0,
is now available at:
http://xmm2.esac.esa.int/docs/documents/CAL-TN-0052.ps.gz
Users are also recommended to make use of the Cross-Calibration review
tool:
http://xmm2.esac.esa.int/cgi-bin/ept/preview.pl
which provides an interactive interface to the multi-instrument
analysis of more than 100 calibration observations, as well as
allowing to generate on the fly histograms and time-series of
cross-normalisation factors among the XMM-Newton instruments in
different energy bands.
Release of new EPIC-pn long-term CTI
====================================
A new EPIC-pn Charge Transfer Inefficiency (CTI) CCF constituent
(EPN_CTI_0023.CCF) is now available. The accuracy of the energy
reconstruction, especially for observations taken in the last ~2
years, is significantly improved with this update. The accuracy of
the energy reconstruction for all EPIC-pn imaging modes has recovered
the nominal ~10 eV across the whole mission.
To make use of this enhanced calibration, users need to generate
calibrated event lists using a Calibration Index File (CIF) which
includes the new CCF constituent. Users that are synchronising the
calibration data through "rsync" or "mirror" have already downloaded
the new CCF when it was released on 23 Dec 2010 and hence CIF files
generated after that date contain the update. Alternatively, the new
CCF can be downloaded from the SOC repository.
More information on the expected scientific quality can be found in
the CCF Release Note:
http://xmm2.esac.esa.int/docs/documents/CAL-SRN-0271-1-0.ps.gz
Release of RGS/EPIC-pn Rectification Factors
============================================
As announced with the SASv10.0 release notes, this version of SAS
included an upgrade of the the RGS effective area determination to
apply a correction for alignment of RGS and EPIC effective areas,
should this be necessary. The spectral correction factors are
contained in a new extension of the calibration files and were set to
unity at that time.
A systematic investigation of the simultaneous response of EPIC-pn and
RGS done with SASv10.0 and the current relevant calibration files has
shown both instruments to agree within a slowly wavelength-dependent
few percent. A simple model-fitting procedure was applied to derive
an empirical set of wavelength-dependent rectification factors applied
to RGS only.
A tabulation of smoothed mean RGS-pn rectification factors is given in
the RECTIFICATION extension of the calibration files
RGS[12]_EFFAREACORR_0008.CCF. They can be applied to the RGS response
matrices through the SAS switch 'withrectification=yes' to modify the
methods of the tasks rgsrmfgen and rgsproc. This switch is off by
default.
More details are given in the CCF Release Note:
http://xmm2.esac.esa.int/docs/documents/CAL-SRN-0269-2-0.ps.gz
Anticipated timeline for next XMM-Newton Announcement of Opportunity: AO-11
===========================================================================
The planned key milestones for the eleventh XMM-Newton "Announcement
of Opportunity" have been established. Within this AO-11 a new call to
submit proposals for observations to be performed with the XMM-Newton
observatory will be issued.
To be prepared for this, please find below the anticipated timeline:
Announcement of Opportunity 23 August 2011
Due date for proposals 07 October 2011 (12:00 UT)
Final OTAC approved programme mid December 2011
For approved proposals only:
Start of phase II proposal submission 10 January 2012
Closure of phase II proposal submission 03 February 2012
Start of AO-11 observations May 2012
The official "Announcement of Opportunity" will be made public in the
XMM-Newton News and on the XMM-Newton Science Operations Centre home
page.
New XMM-Newton SOC Web Page
===========================
The layout of the XMM-Newton SOC Web Page
http://xmm.esac.esa.int/
has changed. While the content remains the same, the access to the
different sections has been made more user friendly through the menu
on the left-hand side of the page.
Workshop Announcement:
XXL: The Ultimate XMM Extragalactic Survey
==========================================
In December 2010, the XXL survey, an XMM-Newton Very Large Programme,
has been granted time to map two extragalactic regions of 25 deg2, at
a depth of ~5E-15 erg/cm2/s (using 10 ks observations). While the
main goal of the project is to constrain the Dark Energy equation of
state using clusters of galaxies (cf. http://arxiv.org/abs/1009.3182),
it will also have lasting legacy value for cluster scaling laws and
studies of AGNs and XRB.
The project is open to any scientist belonging to the international
astronomical community, and interested in actively contributing to the
general legacy effort.
A kick-off meeting is organised by the XMM-LSS collaboration in
Bonifacio (Corsica, France) from the 2nd to the 6th of May 2011.
Workshop topics include:
* X-ray observations and processing
* Follow-up observations
* Multi-wavelength catalogues
* Science (clusters, AGN, galaxies, XRB, theory, etc.)
* Work organisation and legacy issues
Interested scientists are welcome to attend the meeting. More
information is available at:
http://arachnos.astro.ulg.ac.be/RPub/Colloques/XXL2/index.html
Yours sincerely,
XMM-Newton SOC
_______________________________________________
XMM-NEWS mailing list
XMM-NEWS@sciops.esa.int
http://xmm.esac.esa.int/mailman/listinfo/xmm-news
================================================================================================
This message and any attachments are intended for the use of the addressee or addressees only. The unauthorised disclosure,
use, dissemination or copying (either in whole or in part) of its content is not permitted. If you received this message in
error, please notify the sender and delete it from your system. Emails can be altered and their integrity cannot be guaranteed by
the sender.
Please consider the environment before printing this email.
=================================================================================================
----- End forwarded message -----
A service of the XMM-Newton GOF, NASA/GSFC
Please do not reply to this email.
Questions or comments should go to:
http://heasarc.gsfc.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/Feedback