The meta-task edetect_stack
performs standardized EPIC source
detection on overlapping fields of observations, taken at different epochs
or / and in Mosaic Mode. Starting from the filtered event lists, it runs all
steps of source detection, produces the necessary input files (images,
exposure maps, ...), calls the task emldetect
for all input images
simultaneously, and creates the final stacked source list from its output.
Input pointings are considered overlapping if the distance between their
centers is less than 2
12.0 arcmin.
The handling of edetect_stack and its application to a data set are described in Traulsen et al. 2019 and 2020, A&A, arXiv.1807.09178 and arXiv.2007.02932. Users are kindly invited to reference the papers when publishing results based on edetect_stack. For a concise description of the XMM-Newton source detection, the 2XMM Catalogue User Guide https://xmmssc.aip.de/cms/documentation/documentation/. can be consulted. Details on the individual tasks are given in their respective documentations (linked below).
Standard input to edetect_stack are: one attitude file per observation identifier, one ODF summary file per observation identifier, and all event lists, i.e. up to three event lists per OBS_ID keyword. Attitude and summary files are automatically sorted by OBS_ID. In order to use edetect_stack with data taken in mosaic mode or on observations which have several event lists for one instrument for any reason, it is mandatory to run the task emosaic_prep on the event lists first in order to introduce a pseudo-exposure ID. Otherwise, input files may be confused.
edetect_stack comprises twelve stages, which are run subsequently. The task can be stopped and (re-)started at every stage, provided that all input files to the stage are available. Program flow and input parameters are described in more detail in the following subsections.
