WORK PLAN FOR THE EPIC CALIBRATION TEAM 2010-2011 (AND BEYOND)Matteo Guainazzi – ESAC-ESA – Madrid, 23.4.2010

Outline

Status of 2009 BOC objectives New objectives for 2010-2011 A few work items at the SOC for 2010

Plan proposals are in red. Associated deadlines in blue

Outline

Status of 2009 BOC objectives New objectives for 2010-2011 A few work items at the SOC for 2010

MOS redistribution

Implementation foreseen for a post-10 SAS version (10.1) to be release in autumn 2010

Proposal path: S.Sembay will send the current best set of

canned matrices to the SOC as well as guidelines for extraction region consistent with the canned matrices for testing on XCAL by April 5, 2010

XCAL testing results by the UG2010 [Following satisfactory validation]

Keep the current redistribution matrix calculation scheme in SAS (core+patch+wing)

S.Sembay to provide R.Saxton with example code of the new RMF model for conversion to a SAS task plus parameter files for the new redistribution CCF by summer 2010

pn redistribution

Recalibration of soft X-ray redistribution ✔ Recalibration of 6 keV resolution “offset” ✔ F.Haberl to send the new redistribution

CCF numbers by SOC validation of the new matrix on the

XCAL sources by UG2010 SAS independent release of the new CCF

upon successful validation

PSF and flux calibration

2-D PSF SAS infrastructure ✔ CCF released ✔ Current status will be documented in the SAS v10

Validation Report Continuous testing and ultimate publishing a

refereed paper “Mateos’ effect”

Investigation of RGA obscuration ✔(unlikely to be the cause)

Investigation of the stray-light buffer shield geometry UG2010 (pending SciSim support from D.Lumb)

EPIC pn-Timing/Burst Mode

Recalculation of the rate-dependent CTI after the bug fix in arfgen for SASv9.0 ✔

Recalibration of the RAWY-dependent Timing Mode Pattern Fraction ✔ Post SASv10 CCF release

Current plan for Timing Mode: Inclusion of an energy-dependent in the rate-

dependent CTI BOC2011 Observation-based rate-depedent CTI BOC2011 Plan to be revised with E.Kendziorra/C.Tenzier at

Tübingen as of June No further work on Burst Mode is currently

planned (reference paper on the Crab spectra by Weisskopf, Guainazzi, Jahoda et al. to be published on ApJ)

EPIC-pn low energy noise rejection K.Dennerl’s “simple” algorithm (rejection

of frames with excess counts with respect to the Poissonian distribution) succesfully validated ✔ SAS/SPR written – implementation

timescale under study by the SAS Team K.Dennerl is investigating a more

sophisticated (and hopefully more powerful) algorithm Report at the BOC2011

Outline

Status of 2009 BOC objectives New objectives for 2010-2011 A few work items at the SOC for 2010

pn redistribution

Time-dependency Redistribution of doubles versus single

events Ongoing work Goal for the implementation of time-

dependency SASv11

Spatial energy correction in pn

Long-term project to improve the CTI correction based on ground calibration + Vela data may reduce the systematic uncertainties on the energy reconstruction in imaging modes from 10 to 5 eV

M.Guainazzi will present the case to the UG2010, asking for an assessment of the scientific impact of such an improvement to establish proper priority

Cal-Thin/Medium/Thin

Cal-Thin (pn)/-Medium (MOS) Vela-SNR in the Routine Calibration Plan as if 2nd semester

New model for general users? More investigation is required to define

science cases and understand implications Formal process to offer this mode to the XMM-

Newton User’s Community only after the publication of the NRCO experiment results in either a public Technical Note or a paper

MOS noise

Lots of potentially interesting information has been gathered by the study of the long-term evolution of the noise onsets. Goal: consolidate and publish the results Path:

A.Read leads a technical note (to be published on the EPIC calibration web pages) with his analysis of the correlation between noise onset and other observables (e.g., radiation levels)

AR will submit to SOC-MOC a proposal on operational requirements to mitigate the noise after the publication of the TN

High-energy MOS-pn discrepancy We need to address the residual 5-8% flux

difference between MOS and pn at high energies (3-10 keV)

Path: Wait for the release of the MOS and pn soft X-ray

redistribution refinements Short-term solution: adjustment to the effective

area based on the XCAL/2XMM results Long-term solution: self-consistent “à la

Sembay” recipe extended to the: a) determination of the effective area; b) pn

Initial tests are suggestive that there may be a small improvement (~1%) in the MOS-pn discrepancy with the new PSF

Meeting in autumn 2010 (to be organized by M.Guainazzi) to specifically discuss this item

Calibration papers

Proposal: MOS overall calibration pn overall calibration PSF calibration XMM-Newton cross-calibration

Start working after public release of pn and MOS redistribution refinement

S.Sembay and F.Haberl: propose paper number, topic and leadership by the UG2010

Final decision (MG+FH+SS) at the UG2010 First drafts by BOC2011

Outline

Status of 2009 BOC objectives New objectives for 2010-2011 A few work items at the SOC for 2010

A few minor items at the SOC EPIC-IDT

Energy-dependent background subtraction in SW mode

Assessment of the THICK versus THIN/MEDIUM filter calibration

Verification of the pattern fraction of unrecognized events in Imaging Modes

Re-engineering of the user documentation Re-assessment of pile-up thresholds Re-assessment of counting mode duty cycle

as a function of total count rates