Birmingham XMM Guide

A step by step guide to analysing XMM data, from data on a CD to publication! This only really deals with spectral and imaging analysis of extended sources with the MOS and PN cameras. I work on the command line whenever possible, rather than using the SAS GUI (Graphical User Interface), as I find that this gives more insight into what you're doing, and makes your analysis easier to document and repeat, and that is reflected in the steps described below.

Much use is made of scripts written at Birmingham to perform these analysis steps. Throughout this guide, the start and end of script output is marked with a line of dashes, and the scripts are described, and can be downloaded here.

Any corrections, or suggestions, please let me know.

Version 1.1 written by Ben Maughan 31/1/02

Contents

Data Preparation
System setup
Initial processing
Data cleaning and filtering

Imaging Analysis
Create a mosaiced, exposure corrected image
2-D imaging analysis with PSF convolution

Spectral analysis
Extract spectra and generate response products
Fit spectra simultaneously for multiple EPIC cameras

Scripts
Description of data analysis scripts used in the guide
Download the scripts