XMM-Newton-NEWS


XMM-Newton-NEWS  #117,    10-Dec-2010

XMM-Newton Science Operations Centre at
ESA's European Space Astronomy Centre,
P.O. Box - Apdo. 78, 28691 Villanueva de la Cañada, Madrid, Spain

SOC Home Page: https://www.cosmos.esa.int/web/xmm-newton/
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/newsletter

Contents:



XSA (v7.0) with access to Slew Survey data products released

A new version of the XMM-Newton Science Archive (XSAv7.0) has been released on December 9th 2010, and is available at the usual location

     https://www.cosmos.esa.int/web/xmm-newton/xsa

It includes several improvements and provides access to the Slew Survey data products, processed by the XMM-Newton Survey Science Centre (SSC) pipeline. In the Slew Survey observations processing, the SSC pipeline divides each of the EPIC-pn slew exposures into sets of about 1x0.5/cos(slew-angle-to-North) sq. deg regions and creates the corresponding sub-images. The PPS products for each sub-image consist of an event list, together with images and exposure maps for three energy ranges. An event list and an attitude file for the full slew observation are also available. Each sub-image is dealt with in the XSA as an EPIC-pn exposure-like sub-image and is searchable by its central position. Source detection will be included in future versions of the slew pipeline. Slew data products have started to be generated systematically by the SSC slew pipeline from October 1st 2010 onwards.

The release notes for this pipeline can be found at

     http://xmmssc-www.star.le.ac.uk/public/pipeline/

XMM-Newton Radiation Monitor Data

The EPIC Radiation Monitor on board XMM-Newton registers the intensity and some basic spectral information of the spacecraft radiation environment. This information is used in real time to ensure the safety of the scientific instruments during periods of high radiation, such as solar flares and the passage through the Earth radiation belts.

The XMM-Newton SOC generates for each spacecraft orbit a set of Radiation Monitor data that includes, in addition to the standard XMM-Newton time, the correlated time in UT and MJD formats. These data will become part of the XMM-Newton Science Archive in the future. Meanwhile, they are available via a dedicated web page:

     https://www.cosmos.esa.int/web/xmm-newton/radmon



Yours sincerely,
XMM-Newton SOC