XMM-NEWTON PROPOSAL & PLANNING TOOLS
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Please note that final reports for XMM-Newton GO grants are required upon completion of the grant award period. Additional instructions for submitting final grant recipient reports, as well as a required form, can be found here. Yearly progress reports are also required.
Funding is available for accepted ToO and joint XMM/Chandra proposals. Please contact the GOF and follow the instructions below.
AO-8 Call For Budget Proposals
AO-8 Budget Proposal Schedule:
| DATE | EVENT |
|---|---|
| 6 February 2009 | Release of AO-8 NASA GO Budget Announcement (managed by the GSFC GOF) |
| 20 March 2009 | Closure of AO-8 Budget Process |
| June 2009 | Results of AO-8 Budget Process Announced |
NASA has released a call for budget proposals in support of accepted XMM-Newton AO-8 science proposals. This also includes scheduled AO-6 C-target science proposals as well as DDT (ToO) proposals. The budget process is open to guest observers whose primary affiliation is with a US institution.
The current schedule for the review of the budget proposals is listed above. Note, however, that the dates of events are subject to change.
Useful pages and sites:
- The NASA XMM-Newton AO-8 Budget Solicitation Letter from Dr. Lou Kaluzienski for budget proposals
- The Budget Proposal document -- the longer description of the budget process
- The Budget Guide document -- An ABC Guide for submitting budget proposals
- The Budget Proposal Supplement -- A FAQ page for the budget process
- The Budget Form Explanation -- Detailed instructions for filling out the budget form
- The RPS system
- ARK RPS Help
- Documents and Forms (FTP and HTML) -- Links to budget-related forms
- The NASA XMM-Newton AO-8 "Dear Colleague" Letter from Dr. Wilton T. Sanders for science proposals
- The XMM-Newton GOF at NASA/GSFC -- home page for the GOF with project related information and links
- The XMM-Newton Mission Description -- a short introduction to the XMM-Newton
- The NASA Office of Space Science "Guidebook for Proposers" -- The main NASA documentation for proposals
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Important Notes, Changes, and Guidelines for AO-8: Nothing New
However, here are the changes for AO-7 which are still in force.
- By instructions from NASA HQ, subgrants are no longer allowed. Funds to Co-Is at secondary institutions must be routed through the primary institution.
- The scientific justification must now be electronically submitted, as well as submitted with the hardcopy submission.
- The budget narrative, CV, and pending and current support pages must now be submitted electronically as well as via hardcopy. For the electronic submission, combine the three into one PDF file and upload it through the RPS website (suggestions for concatenating PDF files can be found at the RPS website).
- For those with appointments at both US and foreign institutions the fraction of US and foreign support and time spent in each country must be listed in the budget narrative. This may affect the fair-share estimate. Also, the appointment with the US institution should be expected to continue.
- Charging of home/home office internet connection to the grant is not allowed.
- Charging of professional association dues (e.g., AAS dues) to the grant is not allowed.
- Charging of travel expenses of foreign Co-Is to the grant is not allowed (e.g., you can't bring your European colleague to the US for the collaboration).
- CV's are no longer optional, they are required. The CV must also include a list of at least your most recent and important publications.
- For any requested travel, specific costs must be listed in the budget justification, even if the event is subject to change. (E.g., 2008 Winter AAS meeting, Austin, Texas, Airfare $XXX, Hotel $XXX, Registration $XXX, Board $XXX, Ground Transportation $XXX, Incidentals $XXX.
- Your institution's Cage Code is required on the budget form.
The AO-8 Science Proposal Submission Process is Closed. The information below is left here only for reference.
AO-8 Call For Science Proposals
Schedule:
| DATE | EVENT |
|---|---|
| 2009 August 25 | Release of AO-9 Announcement |
| 2009 October 09, 12:00 UT | Deadline for AO-9 Submissions |
| Late December 2009 | Results of AO-9 Announced |
| Late January 2009 | Release of AO-8 Budget Announcement (managed by the GSFC GOF) |
| 12 January 2009 | Start of phase II proposal submission (entering of observation details through the SOC) |
| 6 February 2009 | Closure of phase II |
| June/July 2009 | Results of AO-8 Budget Process Announced |
| May 2010 - April 2011 | Period of AO-9 Observations |
AO-8 Science Proposal Information:
SOC AO-9 home page
| Information | Location |
|---|---|
| Text of SOC XMM-NEWTON NEWS #81 - AO-8 Announcement | ASCII |
| ESA AO-8 Letter from Prof. David Southwood | |
| NASA AO-8 "Dear Colleague" Letter from Dr. L. J. Kaluzienski | ASCII |
| ESA Policies and Procedures for the XMM-Newton AO-9 | HTML, PS.GZ, PDF (copies of SOC files) |
| XMM-Newton Advanced Planning of Observations | SOC Online |
| XMM-Newton Observation Lokator (check if a target has been observed or is awaiting observation by XMM-Newton) |
SOC Online |
| XMM-Newton Visibility Checker Tool | SOC Online |
| XMM-Newton Users' Handbook (UHB) V2.7 | SOC Online, GSFC Online, PS (22.9 Mb zipped), PDF (17.9 Mb) |
| XMM-Newton SOC RPS Help | SOC Online |
| XMM-Newton Specific RPS Help | SOC Online |
| XMM-Newton SOC Latex Template (Mandatory, and note that all sections ncluded in the template must fit within the page limitations) |
TEX |
| XMM-Newton Proposers' Generic Help | SOC Online, or the GSFC GOF: xmmhelp@athena.gsfc.nasa.gov |
AO Science Proposal Submission
Proposals must be electronically submitted directly to the XMM-Newton SOC through the SOC's RPS facility. NOTE: This is different from the NASA/GSFC XMM-Newton RPS system which is only used for NASA XMM-Newton budget proposals. The submission process has been simplified reducing the number of detector-specific details. Successful PIs will need to use the SOC's XRPS to submit observation details for their accepted targets at a later date.
From the SOC AO-8 Page
Please Note
The XMM-Newton SOC highly recommends the use of:
- the online documentation because it contains updated links to references in the text
- the Scientific Justification LaTeX Template
Notes on using the LaTeX Template File
Proposal justifications MUST be submitted as one file in Portable Document Format (PDF). A PDF file can be generated from the LaTeX template in one of two ways:-
Use a LaTeX installation which allows you to create PDF files directly from the .tex file (e.g. pdflatex). Some installations of pdflatex do not allow you to include postscript figures. In this case you might use method 2.
-
Use ps2pdf (preferably version 1.4) to convert a postscript file to PDF:
> latex file.tex
> dvips -Ppdf -G0 -o file.ps file.dvi
> ps2pdf14 file.ps file.pdf
Please take note of the following points regarding the use of the LaTeX template provided;
- Users must make sure that generated pdf output from the template is complete both when displayed with a viewer (acroread) and when printed on paper. LaTeX installations vary greatly and therefore it might not be possible to get all proposals to come out correctly with a single text page layout. In some cases the user will have to adjust the \topmargin=-7mm command in the template to vertically center the text.
- The page limit of 4 pages (5 pages only for justifications of "Large Programs") includes everything of your to-be-submitted proposal justification. Sections 4 and 5 (on previous work and publications) have to be included within the page limit, too.
- You are free to include color images in your proposal justification. Proposals are distributed to OTAC in electronic form. However, the scientific content of the images should still remain extractable when displayed or printed in black and white only.
- The proposal justification can be created both in single and in two-column format. Instructions on how to switch between these two layouts are given in the LaTeX template.
- The font size (11pt) is mandatory.
AO Science Proposal and Planning Tools
SciSim - SciSim is the XMM-Newton project observation modeling tool. It incorporates all instrument calibration information to the greatest extent possible. This includes a detailed ray tracing with the mirror reflectivities and geometric and obscuration effects. It also includes details of the detectors and their responses and artifacts. SciSim should be used for the most accurate analysis of XMM-Newton data, particularly for complex sources and confused regions. (SOC link)FLIX - FLIX scans the public data products used to make the 2XMMi catalogue. For positions of interest it estimates the likely upper-limit to detectable flux. It also estimates the actual flux at that position from the counts in a small circle and the estimated background level. FLIX produces a FITS binary table of all results, and HTML output for selected energy bands.
PIMMS and WebPIMMS - The WebPIMMS package, which is already familiar to many X-ray astronomers has been updated to include the X-ray instruments of XMM-Newton observatory. It provides a convenient method for calculating the expected coarse count rates and pile-up effects for sources with a variety of spectra. WebPIMMS calculates the count rates directly from input spectral parameters as well as by converting from source count rates observed by other X-ray observatories (with spectral form and absorption also as inputs). PIMMS and WebPIMMS have been updated to use in-orbit calibration results consistent with the current SAS V7.1.
Xspec - Xspec is a spectral analysis package for X-ray astronomy. Besides fitting observed and model spectra (e.g., SciSim or QuickSim output), it can also be used to simulate spectra.QuickSim (manual and code) - QuickSim was written to provide a faster (than SciSim) but not so complete modeling of XMM-Newton EPIC observations. It should be considered a PIMMS for imaging. QuickSim provides reasonably accurate modeling of the energy and angular responses (PSFs) of the EPIC instruments to a variety of spectral models and angular distributions. Temporal sinusoidal variations can be incorporated in simulations as well. QuickSim also models the intrinsic detector background and the cosmic diffuse background (although at higher energies this is problematic as much of the background will be resolved out). The output of QuickSim can be used by Xselect, Ximage, and various other data analysis packages. The linux code has been updated since AO-4 (for solaris machines please use the AO-4 code and data files), but not for other platforms (it is a work in progress). The effective area, redistribution matrix, and thermal emission spectral files have been updated.
WebSpec - WebSpec provides spectral simulations of XMM-Newton EPIC (and other X-ray observatory instruments) observations. WebSpec is based on the Xspec package.
Response Files - GSFC Calibration Area Response files are available for the RGS and RMFs are available for the MOS and PN. These are the pipeline versions which are available from the SOC. Also, RMFs and ARFs are available for EPIC full frame mode observations with an extraction radius of 15 arc seconds. These are the files used in PIMMS, and were created from archived observations using SAS V7.1. RMFs for the three detectors and ARFs for the three detectors with the three different filters are available.
Browse - Browse provides access to the XMM-Newton target and observation database.
Target Visibility Tools - XMM-Newton Target Visibility Checker checks when target directions are available for XMM-Newton pointings (SOC link). There is also a HEASARC Viewing Tool.
Coordinate Conversion - The HEASARC tool Coco provides a simple tool for converting between coordinate systems.
X-ray Background Intensities - The HEASARC X-ray Background Tool provides ROSAT All-Sky Survey cosmic X-ray background intensities.
NH - The HEASARC tool nH provides neutral hydrogen column densities.
Help Desks
The XMM-Newton Helpdesk at the SOC provides a web-based tool to send technical queries to mission specialists and programmers, and also search the Helpdesk archive.Mail the XMM-Newton US GOF directly at xmmhelp@athena.gsfc.nasa.gov for all other XMM-Newton questions.
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If you have any questions concerning XMM-Newton send e-mail to xmmhelp@lists.nasa.gov