News 20210412 - XMM-Newton

XMM-Newton-NEWS

CONTENTS

• New pipeline version released
• A database of upper limits created and made accessible from the XMM-Newton science archive
• XSA v13.1 release with access to the upper limits database

NEW PIPELINE VERSION RELEASED

A new version of the Pipeline Processing System (PPS) based on SASv19.0 has been released. Most important changes are aimed to facilitate the estimate of pile-up effects in EPIC-pn spectra of bright X-rays sources and to ease the combined spectral analysis of EPIC and OM sources.

A number of spectral products for different selection criteria are now provided for bright sources in EPIC-pn camera.

OM fluxes are converted into PHA OGIP compliant format for individual sources so that they can be loaded into X-rays standard spectral model fitting packages. These OM PHA spectra are provided for OM sources located close to some EPIC source.

In addition, the lightcurves obtained from different OM exposures in Fast Mode are merged into a single file that covers the whole duration of the observation.

A DATABASE OF UPPER LIMITS CREATED AND MADE ACCESSIBLE FROM THE XMM-NEWTON SCIENCE ARCHIVE

Upper limits, from the three EPIC cameras, have been pre-calculated and stored in a database for slew observations and pointed observations which are public. This is an on-going process with new observations being added as they become available.

They have been calculated at 1,2 and 3-sigma significance using 1-sided Bayesian statistics, which correspond to confidence probabilities of 84.13, 97.72 and 99.87% that the true count-rate value lies below the respective upper limit. Values are available for soft (0.2-2 keV), hard (2-12 keV) and total (0.2-12 keV) energy bands. Upper limit records are shown when the input position lies within the field-of-view of a pointed or slew observation and is not close to a detected source, is not close to a chip gap or the edge of the field and where, for pointed observations, the background is non-zero.

Upper limits are calculated from pipeline images using aperture photometry. Source counts are extracted from a circle of radius of 15" (pointed) and 30" (slew). Background counts for pointed data are extracted from pipeline background maps, with a circle of radius 60". For slew observations, background counts are extracted from an annulus of inner radius 60" and outer radius 120".

The upper limit database can be searched via the XMM-Newton Science Archive (XSA) interface. More details are provided in this web page.

The database has been constructed by Planetek Hellas and the National Observatory of Athens under an ESA-financed contract, in collaboration with the XMM-Newton SOC and the ESAC Science Data Centre.

XSA V13.1 RELEASE WITH ACCESS TO THE UPPER LIMITS DATABASE

A new version of the XMM-Newton Science Archive (XSA v13.1) is available at

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

XSA v13.1 provides access to the new Upper Limits Database. SED products generated by CDS have been updated to new files based on 4XMM-DR10.

Yours sincerely,

XMM-Newton SOC