ROSAT News #181: RELEASE OF THE SECOND ROSAT PSPC SOURCE CATALOG

[Michael Arida <arida@milkyway.gsfc.nasa.gov>]

Date: Thu, 25 May 2000 16:19:54 +0200 (MET DST)
Subject: ROSAT NEWS No. 72

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=              ROSAT NEWS No. 72     ---    25-May-2000                 =
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=                 ROSAT Scientific Data Center at the                   =
=       Max-Planck-Institut fuer Extraterrestrische Physik (MPE)        =
=               Postfach 1603, D-85740 Garching, Germany                =
=-----------------------------------------------------------------------=
=  e-mail address:   rosat_svc@mpe.mpg.de                               =
=  ROSAT Service Area (including ROSAT Data Archive):                   =
=   www address:  http://wave.xray.mpe.mpg.de/rosat                     =
=   ftp address:  ftp://wave.xray.mpe.mpg.de/rosat   or                 =
=                 ftp.xray.mpe.mpg.de    user: anonymous                =
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Contents: RELEASE OF THE SECOND ROSAT PSPC SOURCE CATALOG 
          (ROSPSPC / 2RXP)

The ROSAT Consortium (the Max-Planck-Institut fuer extraterrestrische
Physik, the Goddard Space Flight Center, the Smithsonian Astrophysical
Observatory, Leicester University, and the Astrophysikalisches Institut
Potsdam) announces the release of "THE SECOND ROSAT SOURCE CATALOG 
OF POINTED OBSERVATIONS WITH THE POSITION SENSITIVE PROPORTIONAL 
COUNTER (ROSPSPC / 2RXP)".  This catalog contains arcsecond positions 
and count rates of 95,331 detected sources from 4093 public ROSAT PSPC 
observations covering 14.5% of the sky, including 43,156 high 
confidence detections.

The catalog consists of all primary source parameters from the automated
detection algorithm employed by the Standard Analysis Software
System (SASS).  In addition each observation has been quality checked,
both by automatic algorithms and by detailed visual inspection.  The
results of this quality checking are contained as a set of logical-value
flags for each principal source parameter.  If a source parameter is
suspect, the associated flag is set to "TRUE"; parameters with no
obvious problems maintain the default, "FALSE", value.  

In addition to the catalog, data products for each screened observation
are also available.  These data products include the screened source 
lists, source spectra, results from the spectral and variability 
analysis, and X-ray color images with sources indicated.

Detailed information about the catalog and methods of access to the
catalog and data products can be obtained from the ROSAT Results Archive
web pages in Germany, in the US, and in the UK:

http://wave.xray.mpe.mpg.de/rosat/rra
http://www.aip.de/groups/xray/rosat/rra.html
http://heasarc.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/rosat/rra/RRA.html
http://hea-www.harvard.edu/rosat/rsdc_www/rra.html
http://ledas-www.star.le.ac.uk/rosat/rra/

The Second ROSAT PSPC Source Catalog will continue to be updated as 
new PSPC observations are screened and become public.  New versions 
will be announced via the electronic ROSAT Status reports and on the 
RRA web sites at MPE, GSFC, SAO, AIP and Leicester.

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