XMM-Newton-NEWS

XMM-Newton-NEWS #51, 05-Sep-2005

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

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XMM-Newton Announcement of Opportunity (AO-5)

Letter of invitation by the Director of the ESA Scientific Programme

Dear Colleague,

I am very pleased to invite you to respond to the fifth "Announcement of Opportunity" to submit proposals for observations to be performed with the XMM-Newton observatory.

XMM-Newton is the second cornerstone of ESA's Horizon 2000 Science Programme. It was launched by an Ariane 5 launcher on the 10th of December 1999 and offers astronomers a unique opportunity to perform high throughput non-dispersive spectroscopic imaging in the energy range from 0.3 keV to 12 keV (European Photon Imaging Camera; EPIC) and medium resolution dispersive spectroscopy (Reflection Grating Spectrometer; RGS) in the energy range from 0.4 keV to 2.2 keV. In addition it provides simultaneous optical/UV observations with a co-aligned telescope (Optical Monitor; OM).

This Announcement solicits proposals to be carried out in the period from May 2006 to May 2007. Proposers from all over the world are welcome to participate. All proposals will be subject to independent peer review by the XMM-Newton Observing Time Allocation Committee (OTAC). Potential proposers are expected to prepare and submit proposals in electronic form, by the deadline given below, using the XMM-Newton Remote Proposal Submission (RPS) software.

The documentation for this Announcement is available via the internet at: http://xmm.esac.esa.int/external/xmm_science/AO5

The appendix to this announcement lists the relevant documents and explains in detail how to access them. I would appreciate it if you would distribute the attached information at your home institute.

The key milestones for this Announcement are:

Announcement of Opportunity		05 September 2005
Due date for Proposals		14 October 2005 (12:00 UT)
Final OTAC approved programme		early January 2006

I invite you to submit your proposals and wish you success in using the XMM-Newton observatory.

Yours sincerely,

Prof. D. Southwood
Director
ESA Scientific Programme

Appendix: Overview of Documentation

This appendix outlines the content of each of the documents associated with X-ray Multi-mirror Mission's (XMM-Newton) Announcement of Opportunity.

XMM-Newton Announcement of Opportunity: This letter from the Director of ESA's Scientific Programme is the formal Announcement of Opportunity to apply for XMM-Newton observing time.

XMM-Newton Announcement of Opportunity - Policies and Procedures: This is the "administrative" document of the Announcement, providing all necessary information about the policies adopted and the procedures to be followed.

XMM-Newton Users' Handbook: This gives a description of the satellite and its instruments, followed by detailed information on how to observe with XMM-Newton. For each of the three scientific instruments on board XMM-Newton (EPIC, RGS and OM) detailed information sufficient to calculate the necessary observing times is provided.

The documents listed above can be read (and downloaded) through the World Wide Web on the XMM-Newton Public Server located at ESAC, at the URL:

http://xmm.esac.esa.int/

and can also be retrieved generally as postscript files from the XMM-Newton/VILSPA ftp server. Proposers should use ftp to access "xmm.esac.esa.int", then, log in as "anonymous" and give their e-mail address as password. Type "cd pub/AO5" to go to the directory containing the relevant files. The desired files can then be copied by typing "get filename" after issuing the "binary" command.

Time line for Phase II proposal submission

After the cycle of proposal submission and selection, the observation details for successful proposals must be entered into the observatory system. This is done during "Phase II" proposal submission. Please find below for your information the anticipated time line for that eventual Phase II:

Start of phase II proposal submission		23 January 2006
Closure of phase II proposal submission		17 February 2006

Version 6.5.0 of the Science Analysis System (SAS) released

The XMM-Newton SAS team is pleased to announce the release of a new version of the Science Analysis System: SAS 6.5.0.

The main changes in this version with respect to the former version, SAS 6.1, are:

EPIC calibration upgrade, including the modelling of spatial and temporal effective area dependency for the MOS cameras. A much improved cross calibration between all EPIC cameras has been achieved.
the introduction of the possibility of combining RGS spectra and response matrices, through the new tasks "rgscombine" and "rgssuperrmf".
improved source detection, both for EPIC and OM, especially related to extended sources, and to the presence of straylight artifacts in the case of OM.
upgrade of the metatasks for EPIC general data reduction "emproc" and "epproc".

For further details on obtaining SAS 6.5.0 please visit our SAS pages available at http://xmm.esac.esa.int/external/xmm_sw_cal/sas_frame.shtml

Yours sincerely,
XMM-Newton SOC