XMM-Newton-NEWS


XMM-NEWTON NEWS #23,    07-Jun-2002

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:

XMM-Newton AO-2 status

As reported in XMM-News #22, the Observing Time Allocation Committee (OTAC) for AO-2 consists of 49 scientists organized in 15 panels. The proposals of all scientific categories will be discussed in two or three panels (except category D, where the number of proposals is small enough for a single panel).

All these panel meetings will take place between June 7th and 25th. The results of panels belonging to the same scientific category will be merged afterwards in order to avoid duplications within AO-2.

The final scientific recommendation of the OTAC will be formulated during the meeting of the chairpersons taking place 2nd and 3rd of July at the XMM-Newton Science Operations Centre. The recommendation will specify a priority level for every proposed observation.

Based on this OTAC recommendation, the observing program for AO-2 will be defined by the XMM-Newton Project Scientist. The accepted target list will be made public on a dedicated Web page. In addition, every PI will be informed by e-mail about OTAC's decision.

It is expected to finish the whole process, of proposal evaluation and programme selection for AO-2, well before end-July 2002.

Public Data info page to be discontinued

The maintenance of the web page giving a summary of the XMM-Newton public data sets (see XMM-News #19) available at:
http://xmm.esac.esa.int/external/xmm_data_acc/public_list.shtml
has been discontinued as of 31st May 2002.

This is due to the fact that all the referred data sets are now available through the XMM-Newton Science Archive (XSA):
http://xmm.esac.esa.int/external/xmm_data_acc/xsa

Update of the "Quarterly Status Page"

As announced in XMM-News #22, SOC is maintaining a Web page summarizing the XMM-Newton Status:
http://xmm.esac.esa.int/external/xmm_news/mission_status/

Here you find info on the This page has recently been updated and covers a wider range of XMM-Newton revolutions.

PIs should check the proprietary period

Principal Investigators of guaranteed and AO-1 open time XMM-Newton proposals are kindly reminded to check the proprietary period expiry date of their data sets. This is the date when your data will become public and accessible for every registered user of the XMM-Newton Science Archive.

We remind you that under normal conditions the expiry date is one year after the corresponding CD-ROM with the ODF and pipeline products has been shipped to you.

In case you think you spotted an error in the expiry date, please, let us know immediately via an e-mail to the "> account specifying the proposal ID in the subject of your mail.

SAS 5.3.3 released

Version 5.3.3 of the Science Analysis System has been released;
http://xmm.esac.esa.int/external/xmm_sw_cal/sas_frame.shtml

General

The main objective of this release is to make it possible to analyze OM fast mode data. Further, in response to input from the community we're taking this opportunity to rapidly mend a few problems that have surfaced since the previous public release. Finally, in response to the comments received during the SAS workshop (see below), we are able to introduce a new task to extract spectra and generate responses.

Problems that have been solved since version 5.3.0

EPIC-pn canned response matrices for LARGE WINDOW, TIMING & BURST mode

In SAS 5.3.0 and 5.3.3 the response matrix generation task rmfgen supports all EPIC-pn readout modes except LARGE WINDOW, TIMING & BURST and so ready-made matrices should be used for these modes.

Such canned response matrices have now been made public on our web site at:
http://xmm.esac.esa.int/external/xmm_sw_cal/calib/epic_files.shtml

SAS Workshop presentations and data analysis threads

The first SAS workshop took place between May 8th and 10th at the XMM-Newton Science Operations Centre. We are encouraged in further pursuing this experience by the very positive reactions and comments by the participants.

The presentations have now been made public at:
http://xmm.esac.esa.int/sas/workshops/VILSPA_0205/

The analysis "threads" used during the workshop hands-on sessions are linked on the SAS documentation page at:
http://xmm.esac.esa.int/sas/documentation/threads

Research Fellowship at the XMM-Newton Science Operations Centre

The European Space Agency offers Astronomers and Space scientists the possibility of Post-doctoral Research Fellowships.

Details of the program can be found at:
http://www.rssd.esa.int/Resources/Vacancies/RF.html

Within this program a second ESA Internal Research Fellowship will be available at the XMM-Newton Science Operations Centre (in ESAC near Madrid). The interviews are tentatively planned for September 2002. It is expected that the successful candidate carries out research projects based on XMM-Newton data.

Applicants for this post should have a PhD in astrophysics or equivalent qualification in a relevant discipline. Experience in medium to high resolution X-ray spectroscopy and/or Active Galactic Nuclei is desirable. Contact N. Schartel (Norbert.Schartel@sciops.esa.int), XMM-Newton SOC, ESAC


Yours sincerely,
XMM-Newton SOC