1. XMM EPIC MOS Andy Read (amr30@star.le.ac.uk) EPIC CAL/OPS Meeting Mallorca, Spain 26-27/10/06 EPIC BGWG XMM-Newton EPIC BackGround Working Group founded (~1.5 years ago). Steering and supervising committee to provide the user with clear information on the EPIC Background and (SAS)-Tools to treat the EPIC Background correctly for various scenarios (ESAC, Goddard, Leicester, MPE) Regular meetings (4 th on 25/10/06) and telecons + presentations etc. Major Releases: BG analysis web page with recommended information, papers, summary tables etc: http://xmm.esac.esa.int/external/xmm_sw_cal/background/index.shtml XMM-ESAS XMM-Newton Extended Source Analysis Software package  model the quiescent particle background both spectrally and spatially for the EPIC MOS detectors XMM-Newton blank sky event files  used when the user has difficulty in extracting a suitable background region from their observation (clusters, SNRs, filled FOV etc…) Links to sets of filter wheel closed (FWC) EPIC event files (instrumental BG) Other BG analysis scripts/tools

2. XMM EPIC MOS Andy Read (amr30@star.le.ac.uk) EPIC CAL/OPS Meeting Mallorca, Spain 26-27/10/06 EPIC BGWG Pre-release/under development: SAS tool to perform professional flare screening for EPIC-MOS and EPIC-pn (soon in SASdevel) – Plan to include e.g. pn CCD11 col.63 avoidance… XMM-ESAS for pn Improvements/updates to Blank Sky files Various other BG analysis tools Long-term timeline of instrumental BG + soft proton flare spatial and spectral analysis

3. XMM EPIC MOS Andy Read (amr30@star.le.ac.uk) EPIC CAL/OPS Meeting Mallorca, Spain 26-27/10/06 XMM-ESAS soft proton flare screening modeling the quiescent particle background both spectrally and spatially for the EPIC MOS detectors producing background spectra for user-defined regions of the detectors and background images (FITS standard) XMM-ESAS is based on the software used for the background modeling described in Snowden, Collier & Kuntz (2004, ApJ, 610, 1182). SS/KK Proton flare screening •Abell 1795 (0.35-1.25 keV) Released early ’06 – User feedback and on- going improvements Planned extension to EPIC-pn

4. XMM EPIC MOS Andy Read (amr30@star.le.ac.uk) EPIC CAL/OPS Meeting Mallorca, Spain 26-27/10/06 Blank Sky Analysis Superposition of many pointed observations of pipeline product data from 2XMM – flare-cleaned, filtered, source- removed… Background events files and exposure maps - MOS1, MOS2, pn Mode (eFF, FF) Filter (thin, medium, thick) Type (filled, unfilled) Vignetting (with, without [Exp. Maps]) S/W Select BG events from a certain area of the sky Cast event files onto sky Re-project and rebin exposure maps onto sky All to match user’s own data and analysis Available from ESAC BG page Released May ’06 – User feedback – many improvements made Re-released August ’06 (GTI improvements) Plans to increase file sizes, improve BG selection functions (sky position [web-based], count rate, Gal.column etc.) Event ghosting as stand-alone task JAC/AMR

5. XMM EPIC MOS Andy Read (amr30@star.le.ac.uk) EPIC CAL/OPS Meeting Mallorca, Spain 26-27/10/06 Blank Sky Analysis MOS1FFThick123.01e5 MOS1FFMedium651.58e6 MOS1FFThin1132.19e6 MOS2FFThick133.44e5 MOS2FFMedium671.68e6 MOS2FFThin1112.09e6 PNFFThick102.37e5 PNFFMedium331.08e6 PNFFThin429.93e5 PNFFextThick358664 PNFFextMedium304.62e5 PNFFextThin628.25e5 Instrument Mode Filter N OBS Exp.time (s)

6. XMM EPIC MOS Andy Read (amr30@star.le.ac.uk) EPIC CAL/OPS Meeting Mallorca, Spain 26-27/10/06 Blank Sky Analysis Galactic centre Galactic anticentre North Galactic pole South Galactic pole

7. XMM EPIC MOS Andy Read (amr30@star.le.ac.uk) EPIC CAL/OPS Meeting Mallorca, Spain 26-27/10/06

8. XMM EPIC MOS Andy Read (amr30@star.le.ac.uk) EPIC CAL/OPS Meeting Mallorca, Spain 26-27/10/06

9. XMM EPIC MOS Andy Read (amr30@star.le.ac.uk) EPIC CAL/OPS Meeting Mallorca, Spain 26-27/10/06

10. XMM EPIC MOS Andy Read (amr30@star.le.ac.uk) EPIC CAL/OPS Meeting Mallorca, Spain 26-27/10/06

11. XMM EPIC MOS Andy Read (amr30@star.le.ac.uk) EPIC CAL/OPS Meeting Mallorca, Spain 26-27/10/06

12. XMM EPIC MOS Andy Read (amr30@star.le.ac.uk) EPIC CAL/OPS Meeting Mallorca, Spain 26-27/10/06 - Only S-‘Standard’ datasets released so far, i.e. ‘good’ datasets – no anomalous corner (instrumental BG) effects - Plans for XMM-ESAS to access relevant anomalous instrumental FWC event files when/if required

13. XMM EPIC MOS Andy Read (amr30@star.le.ac.uk) EPIC CAL/OPS Meeting Mallorca, Spain 26-27/10/06 Detector Phenomenology (KK) •Not all chips are well behaved… (See also MSt’s presentation) ? ? ? ? ?

14. XMM EPIC MOS Andy Read (amr30@star.le.ac.uk) EPIC CAL/OPS Meeting Mallorca, Spain 26-27/10/06 Detector Phenomenology -Not all chips are well behaved… MOS1-4, MOS1-5, MOS2-2, MOS2-5 anomalous states occur at different times always characterized by high rates and low hardness

15. XMM EPIC MOS Andy Read (amr30@star.le.ac.uk) EPIC CAL/OPS Meeting Mallorca, Spain 26-27/10/06 Detector Phenomenology (KK) Summary of States S: “standard state” V: “verification” : 1-4, 2-2, 2-5 for Rev<41.5 H: “high”:1-4, 1-5, 2-5, detectable in corner pixels A: “anonymous”: 1-4, not detectable in corner pix. No other chip has yet been detected in A state But since A state can only be detected in FWC data… Need to understand what causes these states Are there detector parameters that can be used to detect these states independently? – Appears not so… Particularly important for the A states!

16. XMM EPIC MOS Andy Read (amr30@star.le.ac.uk) EPIC CAL/OPS Meeting Mallorca, Spain 26-27/10/06 Detector Phenomenology (KK) Summary of States S: “standard state” V: “verification” : 1-4, 2-2, 2-5 for Rev<41.5 H: “high”:1-4, 1-5, 2-5, detectable in corner pixels A: “anonymous”: 1-4, not detectable in corner pix. No other chip has yet been detected in A state But since A state can only be detected in FWC data… Need to understand what causes these states Are there detector parameters that can be used to detect these states independently? – Appears not so… Particularly important for the A states!

17. XMM EPIC MOS Andy Read (amr30@star.le.ac.uk) EPIC CAL/OPS Meeting Mallorca, Spain 26-27/10/06 RGS background count rate - sensitive to both soft protons (few 100s keV) plus higher energy radiation (MeVs),

18. XMM EPIC MOS Andy Read (amr30@star.le.ac.uk) EPIC CAL/OPS Meeting Mallorca, Spain 26-27/10/06 Summer (Aug 2003) Winter (Dec 2004 – Jan 2005) ‘Acceptable level’ ~ 1 ct/s @ E>10 keV V.Fioretti & L.Foschini

19. XMM EPIC MOS Andy Read (amr30@star.le.ac.uk) EPIC CAL/OPS Meeting Mallorca, Spain 26-27/10/06 ‘Acceptable level’ ~ 1 ct/s @ E>10 keV Summer (Aug 2003) Winter (Dec 2004 – Jan 2005) V.Fioretti & L.Foschini Folded on Orbit Period (48 hours) Evidence for Seasonal Effect!

20. XMM EPIC MOS Andy Read (amr30@star.le.ac.uk) EPIC CAL/OPS Meeting Mallorca, Spain 26-27/10/06 Flare-Free Fraction Total Observation Time (max~80 ks) Flare-Free Fraction as a function of orbital position (using ~entire EPIC dataset) GSE-X points towards the sun. GSE-X-GSE-Y plane is the plane of the ecliptic. GSE-Z is towards the north pole. Red indicates higher values. The best observations are made: When the spacecraft is as far from the earth as possible and at 180 degrees from the sun. Towards the sun seems to be better than 90 degrees from the sun. Given the orbit, the best observations will be done in Winter. to Sun K.Kuntz

21. XMM EPIC MOS Andy Read (amr30@star.le.ac.uk) EPIC CAL/OPS Meeting Mallorca, Spain 26-27/10/06 http://xmm.vilspa.esa.es/external/xmm_sw_cal/background/index.shtml EPIC Background Working Group: For updates on: knowledge, understanding, software (ESAS), files (blank sky, closed) etc. …

22. XMM EPIC MOS Andy Read (amr30@star.le.ac.uk) EPIC CAL/OPS Meeting Mallorca, Spain 26-27/10/06

23. XMM EPIC MOS Andy Read (amr30@star.le.ac.uk) EPIC CAL/OPS Meeting Mallorca, Spain 26-27/10/06 L.Foschini