XMM-Newton Eighth Announcement of Opportunity (AO-8)

Announcement of Opportunity

Effective 26 August, 2008, XMM-Newton observing proposals were solicited in response to the Eighth Announcement of Opportunity, AO-8.

A letter from ESA's Director of Science and Robotic Exploration, inviting you to participate in the Eighth Call for Proposals, is available in electronic form (pdf).

The Deadline for XMM-Newton AO-8 submission was 10 October, 2008, 12:00 UT.

Important changes for AO-8 relative to earlier Calls

Very Large Programs

Scientific programs requiring more than 1 Msec of observing time are referred to as "Very Large Programs". These "Very Large Programs" may be accepted for observation in two consecutive AOs.
Further details are given in section 5.2.3 of the Policies and Procedures document.

Instrumental Modes

Three modes, the "Mosaic mode", the "RGS multi-pointing mode" and the "pn modified timing mode", may be considered for individual observations on a best effort basis upon request of the PI (see sections 5.6 and 8.4 of the Policies and Procedures document).
Technical details on the "Mosaic mode" and the "RGS multi-pointing mode" can be found in section 4.6 of the XMM-Newton Users Handbook.

Proposal Submission Documentation

The following AO-8 documentation is available:

Letter by the Director of Science and Robotic Exploration announcing AO-8	pdf
Policies and Procedures for the XMM-Newton AO-8	online,  ps.gz,  pdf
XMM-Newton Users Handbook (UHB)	online,  ps.gz,  pdf
XMM-Newton Scientific Justification LaTeX Template (Scientific Justification must not exceed 4 pages, 5 pages for Large and Very Large Programs)	Tex File

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

AO-8 Timetable

Key milestones for AO-8 are:
Announcement of Opportunity	26 August 2008
Due date for Proposals	10 October 2008 (12:00 UT)
Final OTAC approved programme	late December 2008
For approved proposals only:
Start of Phase II proposal submission	12 January 2009
Closure of Phase II proposal submission	6 February 2009
Start of AO-8 observations	May 2009

Approved AO-8 observations are planned to be performed during the period May 2009 to April 2010 (approximate revolutions 1721 to 1904).

Proposal Submission Procedure and Tools

XMM-Newton Proposals were submitted using the XMM-Newton Remote Proposal Submission software.

The following tools are available to assist AO-8 proposers:

• Visibility Checker Tool    Check if a target is visible with XMM-Newton
• Observation Lokator    Check if a target has been observed or is awaiting observation by XMM-Newton
• Outstanding Accepted ToO and Triggered Observations    Check if a target has already been accepted for triggered observations

Other Useful Links for Proposers

The following links are available to assist AO-8 proposers:

• Observation & Data Processing Status
• XMM-Newton Science Archive
• Calibration Portal
• The Behaviour of the XMM-Newton Background
  
• For Planning purposes:
  • Visibility of AO7 requested Very Large Programs
  • Evolution of the XMM-Newton Sky Visibility (for details please refer to Section 4.2.3 of the XMM-Newton Users Handbook).
  
  
• Remote Proposal Submission, Phase I
  • Generic Help
  • Specific XMM Help

The following external links may also be helpful:

• PIMMS Mission Count Rate Simulator
• Chandra Target Search tool

Using the LaTeX Template File

Use of the provided LaTeX template to write the scientific justification is highly recommended. Proposers may submit their justifications either in one or two column format. Instructions to activate a specific column format are provided in the LaTeX template.

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:

1. 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.
   
   
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" and "Very 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.
  

All questions regarding XMM-Newton proposal submission should be directed to the XMM-Newton Helpdesk.