XMM-Newton-NEWS


XMM-NEWTON NEWS #6,    23-Jul-2001

ESA, XMM-Newton Science Operations Centre at
European Space Astronomy Centre (ESAC)
P.O. Box - Apdo. 50727, 28080 Madrid, Spain

SOC Home Page: http://xmm.esac.esa.int/
Helpdesk web interface: https://www.cosmos.esa.int/web/xmm-newton/xmm-newton-helpdesk
Helpdesk email address: xmmhelp@sciops.esa.int
News Mailing List: https://www.cosmos.esa.int/web/xmm-newton/newsletterindex.shtml

Contents:



Dear Colleagues,

SAS 5.1: Errors found

This item contains three important messages relating to XMM-Newton data analysis.

1. A serious coding error has been detected in the RGS response matrix generator task included in the recently released SAS version 5.1. The effect of this error is to return effective area values above 1 keV which deviate substantially from the correct values. A software fix has been identified; however, due to the dependency of this software package on other components in the SAS, there cannot be an isolated release of a fixed version of this particular package. The XMM-Newton Science Operations Centre, together with the RGS team, is working on a full new release of the SAS in the near future. Given the availability of people over the summer holidays, this new release is expected early September 2001.

In the mean time the only practical workaround is to ignore the data above 1 keV. Rolling back to SAS 5.0 is, for this particular RGS data analysis problem, also a possibility.

2. An unrelated, but equally painful error is related to RGS specific PPS products (like e.g. the RGS calibrated event list produced by the PPS), created in the PPS before June 18, 2001 (i.e. created with PPS versions earlier than 02000035/20010618.143655 2001-06-18T14:36:55). Tasks in version 5.1.0 of the SAS cannot be used to extract spectra and generate response files for the affected event lists. The affected tasks are: rgsspectrum, rgsrmfgen, rgsfluxer. The problem is caused by a file format change. This error will be corrected by the time of the above mentioned new SAS release.

3. There is a known problem with the absence of EPIC-pn pipeline products in a number of cases. If your pipeline products directory on the CD(s) you received contains NO specific products for the EPIC-PN camera, but the page linked through the observation id (obsid column) in the files referenced at:
http://xmm.esac.esa.int/user/mplan

tells you that for your observation pn data has been taken in the extended full frame mode, you can generate the calibrated event list (and many other files) by yourself, by using the standard analysis procedure as outlined in the SAS users' guide. This circumvents the problem causing the pipeline to fail in the generation of the EPIC-pn products for this particular extended full frame mode.

This approach fixes 1 out of 3 known reasons for the absence of EPIC-pn products on your CD(s).

For any further questions, you should address your message to:
xmmhelp@sciops.esa.int.

Dates for the next Announcement of Opportunity (AO-2)

The call for proposals for the next round of XMM-Newton Guest Observer proposals (AO-2) is foreseen to be released on 31 August 2001.

The deadline for proposal submission is planned for 11 October 2001. Please note the limited time between the release and due dates and plan accordingly.

AO-2 observations will probably begin in early summer 2002 and will keep XMM-Newton busy for about one year.

Reminder: PIs, please, check your contact details

The XMM-Newton observation PIs are kindly reminded to check if their email and postal addresses as specified in the AO-1 proposals are still correct. The SOC sometimes has problems to deliver the emails which inform the PIs about the scheduling of their observations as well as with the postal delivery of the data CDs.

If PI contact details have changed since the proposal submission, an email should be sent to with the proposal ID in the subject and with the new address.

Follow-up: Naming conventions for sources found by individual researchers

The IAU "Clearing House" of Commission 5 Working Group on Designations has announced on 10-Jun-2001 the acceptance of the submitted acronyms XMMU and XAU by the IAU Registry (see XMM-Newton News #3 and #4). It has been entered into the on-line Reference Dictionary of Nomenclature of Celestial Objects.

The details of the registered acronym can be found at the URL:
http://cdsweb.u-strasbg.fr/cgi-bin/Dic?XMMU


With best regards,
The XMM-Newton SOC.