XMM-Newton Data Files Handbook

4.1.3 EPIC MOS science files

The following EPIC MOS Science Files are defined:

1. Imaging Mode Event List Files (*M[1,2]*IME.FIT)

2. Timing Mode Event List Files (*M[1,2]*TIE.FIT)

3. Auxiliary Files (*M[1,2]*AUX.FIT)

4. Counting Cycle Report Auxiliary Files (*M[1,2]*CCX.FIT)

5. Offset/variance Mode Event List Files (*M1[1,2]*OVE.FIT)

These are all binary table files. For standard analysis, only types 1-3 are needed. Their content will be described below. Counting Cycle reports (type 4) will be included if the MOS telemetry is exceeded periodically during the observation. The cycle reports should already correspond with Bad Time Intervals, but the data contained indicate the fraction of events detected but lost in the on-board processing. Therefore, the information included in these files may be useful for detailed timing analysis. Offset files (type 5) are down-linked confirmation that the CCD Zero Bias signal level were applied.

We note that the above files do not map one-to-one with the instrument modes defined in [16]. In particular:

• the ``Full Window'' and ``Small Window'' (aka ``Partial Window'') instrumental modes produce Imaging Mode Event List Files only. If the latter is used, the sensitive area of the central chip (CCD1) is reduced. The other CCDs still produce Imaging Mode Event Lists Files for the full 600$\times$600 pixels area.

• the ``Timing'' instrumental mode produces both Image Mode Event List (in CCDs 2-7) and Timing Mode Event List files (from central CCD1)

• Auxiliary files are produced for every instrumental mode

The above files can be recognised by the value of the keyword DATATYPE in their binary table header, as indicated in Table 3.

Table 3: Values of the DATATYPE keywords for the MOS/PN science data file types

Data mode	value of DATATYPE
Imaging Mode	IMAGE.EL
Timing mode	TIME.EL
Burst mode (PN only)	BURST.EL
Auxiliary file	AUX.EL
Offset/Variance (MOS only)	OFFVAR.EL
Counting Cycle Report	COUNT.EL
Offset data image (PN only)	OFFSET.IM
Noise data image (PN only)	NOISE.IM
Discarded Lines Image (PN only)	DISCLIN.IM