1. XMM EPIC MOS Andy Read (amr30@star.le.ac.uk) OPS/CAL/BG (OCB) Meeting Mallorca, Spain 05-07/11/07 Report from the BGWG (05/11/07) Andy Read, on behalf of the EPIC-BGWG Jenny Carter, Matthias Ehle, Michael Freyberg, Kip Kuntz, Silvano Molendi, Wolfgang Pietsch, Steve Snowden

2. XMM EPIC MOS Andy Read (amr30@star.le.ac.uk) OPS/CAL/BG (OCB) Meeting Mallorca, Spain 05-07/11/07 •2•2 •Matthias Ehle - SCI-OAX Reaction from User Group Meeting: 7-8 June 2007 (ME) Immediately after presentation: UG chair (M. Arnaud) expressed thanks for all the work done by EPIC BGWG R. Mushotzky asked about maintainability of ESAS  plan is to get it into SAS Lack of enough FWC data to properly characterize instrumental BG  deferred for general discussion  M. Arnaud asked about tool to select blank sky fields based on galactic coordinates (not only RA/Dec). During Discussions: UG recognized and was impressed by tremendous amount of work done by BGWG ! Lack of enough FWC data to properly characterize instrumental BG  Recommendation 2007-06-08/45: The UG recommends that the BGWG makes a study of the needs for closed filter data This study exists as shown by S. Snowden during previous BGWG meeting “Filter Wheel Closed Calibration Observations”  Quick solution: NRCO#70 approved for 2007 in August; now in EPIC routine cal plan: monthly 10 ksec dedicated FWC full frame exposures in ‘good part’ of orbit:

3. XMM EPIC MOS Andy Read (amr30@star.le.ac.uk) OPS/CAL/BG (OCB) Meeting Mallorca, Spain 05-07/11/07 XMM-ESAS update (SS) Acceptance for publication of the Analysis Methods/Cluster Catalog Paper Available through Astro-Ph (and here) Acceptance for publication of the Particle Background Paper Available here (not yet in Astro-Ph) Modification required for SAS V7.1 Still a work in progress Requires patches which are not yet available PN Modifications Slow progress until MOS update for SAS 7.1 PN data processing by K.Kuntz ~finished -> Couple months of CPU

4. XMM EPIC MOS Andy Read (amr30@star.le.ac.uk) OPS/CAL/BG (OCB) Meeting Mallorca, Spain 05-07/11/07 BGWG Blank Sky Summary (JAC/AMR) New release of files May 2007 addressing issues: low-E residual sources in some files small correction to vignetted exposure maps addition exposure maps with extra flags made available Updates to pages count rate graphs added in SSC bands Investigation/consideration of: ghosting problem, scaling of exposure maps, addition of new modes and increasing the size of the component file sets BGSelector tool improved, generic version of SelectRADec select on eq./gal coordinates, nH, revn., exposure, time ready for upload to pages 0.5 - 2.0 keV

5. XMM EPIC MOS Andy Read (amr30@star.le.ac.uk) OPS/CAL/BG (OCB) Meeting Mallorca, Spain 05-07/11/07 Fin_over_Fout [New – Available] Warnings put in regarding use of the MOS1 algorithm with post Rev-961 MOS1 CCD6 loss [New numbers calculated by SM – will be input v.soon] Smaller Scripts/Tasks - New

6. XMM EPIC MOS Andy Read (amr30@star.le.ac.uk) OPS/CAL/BG (OCB) Meeting Mallorca, Spain 05-07/11/07 Input: ANY" Sky template: e.g.4.35"Sky output: 4.35" BGrebinimage2SKY [New – Available] Now can rebin and reproject any DETX/DETY image of any binning onto the sky to the spatial scale and sky X/Y position of a user input image Smaller Scripts/Tasks - New

7. XMM EPIC MOS Andy Read (amr30@star.le.ac.uk) OPS/CAL/BG (OCB) Meeting Mallorca, Spain 05-07/11/07

8. XMM EPIC MOS Andy Read (amr30@star.le.ac.uk) OPS/CAL/BG (OCB) Meeting Mallorca, Spain 05-07/11/07

9. XMM EPIC MOS Andy Read (amr30@star.le.ac.uk) OPS/CAL/BG (OCB) Meeting Mallorca, Spain 05-07/11/07

10. XMM EPIC MOS Andy Read (amr30@star.le.ac.uk) OPS/CAL/BG (OCB) Meeting Mallorca, Spain 05-07/11/07

11. XMM EPIC MOS Andy Read (amr30@star.le.ac.uk) OPS/CAL/BG (OCB) Meeting Mallorca, Spain 05-07/11/07

12. XMM EPIC MOS Andy Read (amr30@star.le.ac.uk) OPS/CAL/BG (OCB) Meeting Mallorca, Spain 05-07/11/07 Conclusions based mainly on RGS – within scatter, no difference between instruments EPIC-pn data more scarce & RGS on longer time at end of rev

13. XMM EPIC MOS Andy Read (amr30@star.le.ac.uk) OPS/CAL/BG (OCB) Meeting Mallorca, Spain 05-07/11/07 Evolution of the BG (years) Instruments generally agree No clear trend in evolution of BG Largest changes seen at end of rev – peaks of BG increase from 2000 to 2003- 2005 and then decline

14. XMM EPIC MOS Andy Read (amr30@star.le.ac.uk) OPS/CAL/BG (OCB) Meeting Mallorca, Spain 05-07/11/07 Evolution of the BG (months) Seasonal dependence due to asymmetry of the Earth’s magnetic field along the sun- antisun line. Beginning: Strong seasonal effect – high Feb-Aug – lower for rest of year – min in Dec & Jan – variation factor can be ~8 Apogee: Similar – marked minimum in Dec & Jan – variation only <3 (only <1.5 in Mar-Oct) End: Highest levels and strongest variations – Max in Apr (~8x Aug-Sep) – plus yearly effect

15. XMM EPIC MOS Andy Read (amr30@star.le.ac.uk) OPS/CAL/BG (OCB) Meeting Mallorca, Spain 05-07/11/07 Evolution of the XMM BG (Years)

16. XMM EPIC MOS Andy Read (amr30@star.le.ac.uk) OPS/CAL/BG (OCB) Meeting Mallorca, Spain 05-07/11/07 Evolution of the XMM BG (Months)

17. XMM EPIC MOS Andy Read (amr30@star.le.ac.uk) OPS/CAL/BG (OCB) Meeting Mallorca, Spain 05-07/11/07