GSFC XMM-Newton GOF Status Report #173: Users Group Meeting/Useful Information

[xmmnews@lists.nasa.gov]

16 April 2009

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Contents:

1) XMM-Newton International Users Group Meeting
2) AO-8 Status
3) Supersoft X-ray Sources - New Developments
4) XMM-Newton Publications
5) XMM-ESAS Update

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1) XMM-Newton International Users Group Meeting

The next USG meeting will be held 5-6 May.  If there are any
concerns that you would like discussed at the meeting please
let us know by e-mail to xmmhelp@lists.nasa.gov

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2) AO-8 Status

The Eighth Call for Proposals for XMM-Newton closed in October 2008;
successful submissions were announced on December 17, 2008.  The Budget
Process has begun, with the submission deadline of March 20.  The budget
review will be held at the end of May with the results expected to be
released in late June or early July.

Accepted proposals may be found online at
http://xmm.esac.esa.int/external/xmm_news/otac_results/index.shtml.

The expected dates for AO-9 are:
    Announcement of Opportunity   25 August 2009
    Due date for proposals        09 October 2009 (12:00 UT)
    Final OTAC approved program   mid December 2009

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3) Supersoft X-ray Sources - New Developments

The XMM-Newton Science Operations Centre is organizing a workshop for
May 18-20, 2009, in Madrid, Spain, entitled "Supersoft X-ray Sources -
New Developments".   The goal of the workshop will be to review the
current status of observational and theoretical research on supersoft
X-ray sources and identify the most important unresolved problems.  More
information regarding the meeting location and accommodations, as well
as the submitted abstracts, may be found here:
http://xmm.esac.esa.int/external/xmm_science/workshops/2009_science/.

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4) XMM-Newton Publications

The number of publications using XMM-Newton data continues to increase,
as does the rate at which they are published.  As of the end of March,
2009, over 2300 refereed papers have been published making use of
XMM-Newton; 444 of these came over the past year.  The publication rate
from April 2008 through March 2009 averaged a remarkable 111 papers per
quarter -- this compares very well with previous years (2004-2006: 81
papers per quarter; 2006-March 2008: 100 papers per quarter).

For more information about XMM-Newton, please visit the US Guest
Observer Facility pages at http://xmm.gsfc.nasa.gov/.

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5) XMM-ESAS Update

The XMM-Newton Extended Source Analysis Software is currently being
improved and readied for release as part of SAS V9.  As part of SAS
the requirement for a separate download and installation will be
removed and the required CalDB files will be part of the CCF.
The initial release will still only cover MOS data.  However,
considerable progress have been made of the software to support the
analysis of PN data.


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