XMM-Newton-NEWS

XMM-Newton-NEWS #69, 28-Aug-2007

XMM-Newton Science Operations Centre at
ESA's European Space Astronomy Centre,
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XMM-Newton Announcement of Opportunity (AO-7)

Letter of invitation by the Director of the ESA Scientific Programme

Dear Colleague,

I am very pleased to invite you to respond to the seventh "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 0.2 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 2008 to May 2009. 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/AO7/

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	28 August 2007
Due date for Proposals	05 October 2007 (12:00 UT)
Final OTAC approved program	late December 2007

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/ESAC 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/AO7" 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	14 January 2008
Closure of phase II proposal submission	08 February 2008

Important changes for AO-7, relative to earlier calls

Scientific Justification

Use of the provided LaTeX template to write the scientific justification is highly recommended. Proposers may submit their justifications either in one or two column format. Instructions to activate a specific column format are provided in the LaTeX template.

Targets of Opportunity

It is allowed to propose observations of unpredictable events from sources the coordinates of which cannot be provided in advance. The procedure for proposing such observations is described in section 5.2.5.1 of the Policies and Procedures document.

Very Large Programs

Scientific programs which require between 1 Msec and 3 Msec of observing time are referred to as "Very Large Programs". The XMM-Newton Users Group explicitly encourages the submission of "Very Large Programs". Further details are given in section 5.2.3 of the Policies and Procedures document.

Yours sincerely,
XMM-Newton SOC