Effect of soft flares on XMM-Newton EPIC-pn timing mode data

Vadim Burwitz; Frank Haberl; Michael J. Freyberg; Konrad Dennerl; Eckhard Kendziorra; Marcus G. F. Kirsch

doi:10.1117/12.506363

3 February 2004 Effect of soft flares on XMM-Newton EPIC-pn timing mode data

Vadim Burwitz, Frank Haberl, Michael J. Freyberg, Konrad Dennerl, Eckhard Kendziorra, Marcus G. F. Kirsch

Proceedings Volume 5165, X-Ray and Gamma-Ray Instrumentation for Astronomy XIII; (2004) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.506363
Event: Optical Science and Technology, SPIE's 48th Annual Meeting, 2003, San Diego, California, United States

Abstract

The EPIC-pn CCD Camera on board the ESA X-ray observatory XMM-Newton is a very sensitive and versatile instrument with many observing modes. One of the modes, the timing mode, was designed so that a time resolution of 0.029 milliseconds can be achieved. This mode is important for observing bright variable sources with a very high time resolution. Up to now it has only been possible to use the spectra down to 300-400 eV in this mode. Below this energy the data appears to be affected by soft flares which are caused by stack overflows generated by high energy particles. We present a method that can be used to mitigate the effect these flares have on the data and discuss the improvement that this brings to the timing mode spectra. This new method will at last make it possible to get spectra down to the lowest energies detectable in this mode. This is particularly interesting for timing studies of isolated neutron stars and other variable objects, such as magnetic CVs, with very soft spectra.

Citation Download Citation

Vadim Burwitz, Frank Haberl, Michael J. Freyberg, Konrad Dennerl, Eckhard Kendziorra, and Marcus G. F. Kirsch "Effect of soft flares on XMM-Newton EPIC-pn timing mode data", Proc. SPIE 5165, X-Ray and Gamma-Ray Instrumentation for Astronomy XIII, (3 February 2004); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.506363

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