The SSC is responsible for systematically processing all XMM-Newton observations to produce data products for the three scientific instruments. This processing is done with a pipeline that uses the same SAS software packages that are available for users to interactively analyse XMM-Newton data. However, the pipeline infrastructure used to carry out the processing has been developed by, and is specific to, the SSC. Each dataset processed is subject to a screening procedure by the SSC team which aims to verify the quality of the processing and identify any processing problems.
The aim of the pipeline processing is to provide a set of data products which are of immediate value for the XMM-Newton observer as well as for the XMM-Newton Science Archive where they are also stored for eventual public release. The pipeline products, together with the ODF (see § 6.1.1), are distributed to observers by the XMM-Newton SOC via the XMM-Newton Science Archive.
The XMM-Newton data products include calibrated, ``cleaned'' event lists for all X-ray cameras, which are intended to provide the starting point for most interactive analysis of the data. A number of higher-level products are also provided, such as sky images, source lists, cross-correlations with archival catalogues (performed by the Astronomical Catalogues Database Subsystem (ACDS) at the Observatoire Astronomique de Strasbourg), and spectra and time series of sufficiently bright individual sources. These provide a useful overview of the observation for the XMM-Newton observer as well as constituting key archival resources.
The pipeline processing performed by the SSC is described on their
pipeline processing web pages (http://xmmssc-www.star.le.ac.uk/public/pipeline/).
The data products produced by the SSC pipeline are detailed in documents
available on the SOC Manuals web page
(http://xmm.esac.esa.int/external/xmm_user_support/documentation/).
The SSC also has a responsibility to perform bulk reprocessings of all XMM-Newton data from time to time. This enables the most up-to-date processing and calibrations to be applied to data and re-imposes uniformity on the archive. In this context, almost all existing XMM-Newton observations prior to May 2007 were reprocessed by the SSC in 2006/2007 using a version of the SAS very similar to the public SAS v7.0 and the latest instrument calibrations at that time. The 2XMM source catalogue (see § B.3) was constructed from selected observations from this reprocessing.