GSFC XMM-Newton GOF Status Report #194: XMM-NEWTON NEWS #107

[xmmnews@lists.nasa.gov]

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_/           XMM-NEWTON  NEWS   #107   ---  29-Apr-2010           _/
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              XMM-Newton Science Operations Centre at
               ESA's European Space Astronomy Centre,
P.O. Box - Apdo. 78, 28691 Villanueva de la Canada, Madrid, Spain

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SOC Home Page:
   http://xmm.esac.esa.int/
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Contents:

  - Version 10.0 of the Science Analysis System (SAS) released



Version 10.0 of the Science Analysis System (SAS) released
==========================================================

The XMM-Newton  SAS team is pleased  to announce the release  of a new
version of the SAS: SAS 10.0.

Binaries for diverse flavours of Linux, Solaris and MacOs as well as a
virtual  machine including  SAS 10  for Linux,  MacOs and  Windows are
available at

http://xmm.esac.esa.int/sas/current/download/


The  main improvements  in this  version  with respect  to the  former
version, SAS 9.0.0, are:

- full compliance of  the SAS C++ code with  gcc4, making possible the
   support of newer operating system / flavours;

- full 2-D parameterisation of the EPIC PSF as function of instrument,
  energy and off-axis angle, covering the whole field-of-view, is being
  introduced.  This   is  kept  in   this  version  as   a  non-default
  alternative, since it is not fully scientifically validated, and some
  areas  of  the parameter  space  have  still  to be  explored  and/or
  refined.  The alternative parameterisation  models the PSF spokes and
  the  large-scale  azimuthal variations,  and  includes an  additional
  gaussian core, which accounts for (at most) 2% of the enclosed energy
  flux in the MOS cameras.

- new  task  specgroup, for  defining  the  useful  range of  spectral
   channels and grouping channels  according to statistical criteria of
   EPIC and RGS spectra;

- upgrade  of the configurable  SAS pipeline-like  metatask  psechain,
   for general  processing of all the XMM-Newton  data corresponding to
   one observation, but in particular, for the extraction of scientific
   reduced  data related  to one  or several  point  sources, including
   signal to noise optimization;

- upgrade of the task emosaicproc included in the former SAS 9 version
   for analysis  of EPIC mosaic  data and coherent source  detection of
   overlapping EPIC exposures;

- adaptation  of   the  metatask  for  analysis  of   EPIC  slew  data
   eslewchain,  for its  easy  inclusion into  the official  XMM-Newton
   Pipeline system PPS;

- RGS  data  analysis  performed  by  default on  a  wavelength  grid.
   Modelling of the  RGS background is now also  possible (and default)
   on  the  wavelength  grid,  after adaptation  of  the  corresponding
   background templates;

- extension  of  the contamination  model  for  RGS  according to  the
   findings  of the  RGS  calibration team,  showing  a non-linear  but
   asymptotic contamination  evolution.  It requires  the use of  a new
   version      of     the     corresponding      calibration     files
   RGS1_EFFAREACORR_0006.CCF and RGS2_EFFAREACORR_0006.CCF (these files
   will  be publicly  available at  earliest a  week after  the  SAS 10
   release, and are not compatible with SAS 9.0);

- upgrade of the  the RGS effective area determination  to include the
   possibility of a  spectral correction for alignment of  RGS and EPIC
   effective areas, should this be  necessary, which can be switched on
   by  the  non-default  parameter "withrectification".   The  spectral
   correction  factors  are  contained   in  a  new  extension  of  the
   calibration files for the moment set to unity;

- new task omvariability, for OM variability statistics;

- improvement of the photometry for OM fast mode;


For further details on SAS 10.0 please visit the SAS Pages at:

http://xmm.esac.esa.int/sas/


Yours sincerely,
XMM-Newton SOC


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