XMM-Newton-NEWS

Contents:

• Version 13.0 of the Science Analysis System (SAS) released
• Update on the MOS1-CCD3 event of December 2012

Version 13.0 of the Science Analysis System (SAS) released

• EPIC spectral products for a single source in multiple exposures: As many sources have been observed by XMM-Newton in several occasions, we have extended the use of xmmselect capabilities for handling any number of exposures, including different EPIC cameras, even from different observations. Selection of source and background region in the combined image is possible, followed by an eventual optimisation and extraction of source and background spectra from everyone of the input exposures (multiespecget). Combined spectra and response matrices can eventually be derived with the new task epicspeccombine.
• EPIC pn pile-up correction for imaging modes: A novel method ("Added Event") for correcting the effects of pile-up is introduced experimentally in this release. This method adds trial events to the original event file and by following their evolution it determines the fraction of upscattered events produced by pile-up and their energies. The resultant channel spectrum is written into the RMF.
• Off-axis astrometry refinement: An off-axis dependent systematic offset in the EPIC astrometry can be corrected through poscorr3xmm. This effect is at most 0.5 arcsec for sources at an off-axis angle of 12 arcmin.
• EPIC pn X-ray loading correction: Imaging modes can now be corrected for X-ray loading through epxrlcorr.
• RGS wavelength scale correction: The wavelength scale of the RGS spectrometers can be corrected for its dependency with the distance from the target to the Sun, through an upgrade of rgsangles.
• RGS heliocentric correction: The heliocentric velocity correction, introduced through heliocentriccorr in the previous SAS version, can now be applied to the wavelength scale of the spectrum.
• the derivation of the RGS spectrum on a wavelength grid has been improved, solving the problem of spikes in the spectrum in bins with a very small effective area.

Update on the MOS1-CCD3 event of December 2012

• MOS1 CCD3 was significantly damaged, and it has been disabled.
• The science impact of the loss of MOS1 CCD3 is small (no impact for on-axis point sources and extended sources with radius smaller than 5.5 arcmin).
• The frame-time of all the MOS1 CCDs in "Full Frame" mode and of the peripheral CCDs in "Timing" mode has been modified from 2.6 to 2.7 s.