SAS developments and future plans

ESAC

Carlos GABRIEL and the S3MT

XMM-Newton Science Operations Centre – ESAC / ESA

SAS developments and

ESAC

SAS SOC team

After John Hoar > GAIA and Jenny Carter > EPIC@Leicester : - Eduardo Ojero

- Richard Saxton

- Aitor Ibarra (0.5 fte) - Carlos Gabriel (0.7 fte)

Expectation: stable team for the years to come + Support from Andy Pollock on RGS matters

+ Collaboration by Leo Metcalfe and Matteo Guainazzi in SAS CCB - Aitor’s SAS participation will probably grow to full fte within 2006

ESAC

SAS development in last months

Main achievements:

CG’s presentation to XMM UG (5/05):

- SAS 6.5 release (

)

- Upgraded EPIC MOS calibration (incl. temporal-spatial dependencies)

- Combination of RGS spectra and response files from different observations - Refurbished emproc and epproc [now incl. ALL e[m][p]chain capabilities] - Upgraded OM grism (“the first real useful calibration”)

- Upgraded source detection (>> general reprocessing) - Installation scripts included

- Patch (

):

(My) optimal schedule:

 June 10: S/W code freeze

 June 15: Binaries on all platforms (still TBD)  …-August 10: SAS scientific validation

ESAC

SAS platforms

Supported platforms (SAS 6.5.0) Linux

Red Hat

7.1: Built on 7.1. Tested to work on 7.2 as well.

9.0: Built on 9. Tested to work on Fedora Core 1 as well.

EL3: Built on RHEL 3. Tested to work on Fedora Core 1 and 2 as well.

EL4: Built on RHEL 4.

FC3: Built on Fedora Core 3.

SuSE

7.3: Built on 7.3. Tested to work on Red Hat 7.3 as well.

8.2: Built on 8.2. Tested to work on SuSE 9 and 9.1 as well.

Solaris

2.8: Built on 2.8. Not usable on 2.9.

2.9: Built on 2.9.

Mac OS X

10.2: Built on 10.2 (Darwin 6.8 / Jaguar).

ESAC

SAS 6.5 issues

Open Issues / Problems with SAS 6.5.0: - General:

- Quadrant in PN with fewer events than expected

- Problem identified: in epframes / probably fixed by now in epevents - Action: Watchout item with list of exposures affected (44)

- Segmentation faults running rgssuperrmf

- Problem semi identified: low memory

- Action: Watchout item giving alternative (=rgscombine)

- MacOS:

- Events lost with MacOSX 10.4 (Tiger)

- Problem is not identified: official support only for OSX 10.2 - Action: Watchout item with warning to Mac users

- Action II: buying new H/W, trying to extend official support - Time correlation related problems

- Problem identified: lack of default to TCX by Mac (fixed in release track) - Action: Watchout item indicating how to solve it

- New Linux versions (FC II&III / SuSE9.2 / EL4):

ESAC

SAS 6.5 download statistics

Download questionnaire helping us to get customers’ number and profile

~ 700 registered downloads ~ 1500 registered users

ESAC

SAS 6.5 documentation

SAS 6.5 Scientific Validation:

• on the basis of events files from [em] [ep][rgs]proc / om?chain

• fully by SOC due to PPS high demands on SSC

• most important part immediately on line [same date as release!]

• final report later on line

+ updated tasks’ docu + SAS UM update + full set of Threads

ESAC

SAS 7 – what remains to be done?

Only “big” items remaining:

- EPIC background modeling

>> working group (GOF collaboration)

- task handling soft proton background - flare screening for MOS’s– BP (GOF)

>> task + calibration files ready (see AP’s presentation)

- RGS cool columns

>> task + calibration files ready (AP’s presentation and ...)

+ some other calibration issues In addition:

ESAC

RGS: avoiding cool columns

Fitting Mkn421 with absorbed power law

ESAC

CAL-CCF issues

- PSF correction for timing and burst modes needed in arfgen

- column dependent CTI/Gain for MOS

- OM grism response matrix

ESAC

SAS 7 release

Why?

- many improvements in calibration and processing which should go to the observers - SAS should be available at the latest when the reprocessed data get public

-When?

- before the (high) summer - to avoid the vacations period and to avoid conflicts with the next AO

>> 30 June 2006 -

expectation: reprocessing PPS ready and

working at that time >> internal

SAS 6.9

- Scientific Validation: minimum effort required on our end

ESAC

VMware: producing a virtual machine, “a computer defined in software”

> Windows > Linux

needs VMware license (one company, others appearing in the market)

>> using since a while to test SAS on “exotic” OS versions, which we do not have directly installed on a single machine (and for which we do not provide “official support”)

Free VMware Player makes possible to export SAS into a VM without costs for the user:

>> including whole SAS (eg. FC3 version) + calibration ~ 2 GB

Pro’s and Con’s:

> easy installation, no special requirements, no special tests

> running SAS on “exotic platforms (eg. Windows)” (important for some areas in the world)

> reduced computing power of VM compared to a native OS > distribution somewhat difficult (DVDs ?)