The possibility to recommend unanticipated TOO observations is open
to all astronomers worldwide.
Astronomers who detect a suitable event are strongly encouraged to
send a recommendation via the TOO alert page at:
http://xmm2.esac.esa.int/external/xmm_sched/too/too_alert.shtml
Receipt of an urgent recommendation immediately initiates the process of a
technical review, a decision to interrupt the XMM-Newton programme and,
if accepted, the observation of the proposed target.
For non urgent requests, this process may be initiated only at the first
next working day after the receipt of the alert at the SOC.
Unanticipated TOO observations are performed under the ``Discretionary
Time'' category (Section 3.4) or, if approved by an OTAC
chairperson, as ``Open Time'' (Section 3.3) observation.
Unanticipated TOO observations which do not violate data rights of
accepted proposals may either get half a year proprietary rights or
be made public after successful Observation Data File (ODF) generation.
The Project Scientist decides about data rights and the proprietary
period of data resulting from unanticipated TOO observations.
The basis of the decision is the information provided in the alert,
as well as the time when it arrived at the SOC.
Follow-up observations of TOO events which occurred after the deadline
of a call are explicitly covered by the policy described above.