XMM-Newton Science Archive (XSA)

 

This page collects data access links, documentation and release notes for the XMM-Newton Science Archive within the ESAC Science Data Centre and other sites of the XMM-Newton consortium.

Index

 

 


Access to XMM-Newton data and source catalogues

 
Search the XMM-Newton Science Archive (XSA)


Direct access to the XSA data via URL or AIO (Archive InterOperability System):
 
Command line and URL access to the XSA data


Astroquery and TAP (Table Access Protocol) access to the XSA Database:
 
Astroquery and TAP queries to the XSA Database

 
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Download Full XMM-Newton Catalogues and datasets


Alongside all XMM-Newton scientific data products and observation-related information, high-level catalogues and
a multiwavelength datasets can be accessed through the XSA or downloaded from the links below:
 
4XMM-DR12 XMM-Newton New
Serendipitous Source Catalogue		 Download the FITS table
Download the CSV table		 Documentation and watchouts
(by the SSC consortium)
Slim version of the New
4XMM-DR12 catalogue		 Download the FITS table
Download the CSV table		 Documentation and watchouts
(by the SSC consortium)
4XMM-DR12s New
Stacked Catalogue		 Download the FITS table
Download the stacked sources FITS table
Download the stacked observations FITS table		 Documentation
(Maintained by the SSC consortium)
XMM-DR11 SEDs Download all SED FITS files Documentation:
Webb et al. 2020A&A...641A.136W
(sect 9.1 and Table 4)
4XMM-DR9 Multi-Object Coverage
maps (MOC) Fits Files		 Download MOCs for individual observations
Download the whole 4XMM-DR9 field MOC		 Documentation
(Maintained by the SSC consortium)
The XMM-Newton Slew Survey
XMMSL2 Source Catalogue		 Download the FITS table (FULL)
Download the FITS table (CLEAN)		 Documentation
XMM-OM-SUSS5
XMM-Newton Serendipitous
UV Source Survey Catalogue

 

 Download the FITS table
Download the FITS table (SLIM version)		 Documentation and watchouts
XMM-Newton OM Bright Sources
Catalogue		 Download the FITS table Documentation
Spectral Fit Catalogues 3XMM-DR7 spectral fit catalogue XMMFITCAT
3XMM-DR6 photo Z catalogue XMMPZCAT
3XMM-DR6 spectral fit Z catalogue XMMFITCAT-Z		 Documentation
(Carried out by an ESA-PRODEX
funded collaboration between
European institutes and the SSC)

Alongside the XSA, are also distributed through: :

Previous versions of the XMM-Newton Serendipitous Source Catalogue
and of the XMM-Newton Serendipitous Stack Source Catalogue can be found here.
 
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Tools

 
The Upper Limits Database Upper limits DB from all public pointed and slew 0bservations, searchable from the XSA interface
(Documentation)
RISA on-the-fly data processing & analysis Service for on-the-fly processing of XMM-Newton data with SAS (see Technical Note and Interactive Data Analysis help) without the need of downloading data and software.
HILIGT multimission upper limit server for XMM-Newton and other high energy missions Tool to provide for XMM-Newton the EPIC source parameters, if existing, or otherwise an upper limit value, and to provide as well data from other high-energy missions. See the User Guide.
PFLIX Portable Flix version to estimate flux upper limits
from EPIC XMM-Newton images directly extracted from the XSA archive		 Pflix is a portable version of the FLIX web-service hosted at Leicester University. Pflix estimates flux upper-limits for positions in EPIC pointed fields. It can be compiled with gfortran to run on different operating systems (Linux, MacOS, or Windows). It gets the data files directly from the ESAC XSA servers, so has access to all the currently public observations (see https://www.ledas.ac.uk/flix/pflix_description.html)
FLIX Upper limit and image cut-out
from XMM-Newton Serendipitous Source Catalogue images		 Tool provided by the XMM-Newton Survey Science Centre (SSC), available via LEDAS.
IRAP Catalogue server Cross-correlation products of potential 4XMM catalogue sources counterparts, and other associated products and tools.
XID X-ray follow-up and Identification program Optical follow-up of X-ray sources (Maintained by the SSC consortium)
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Documentation

 
XMM-Newton Science Data Products Guide A short guide to XMM-Newton science data products.
Data Quality Process for XMM-Newton Data A description of the "Data Quality Process" applied to XMM-Newton Data and the "Data Quality Report" available for each observation.
Radiation Monitor Data Files A description of the Radiation Monitor and the data files produced, which can be downloaded from the XSA interface.

 
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Watchouts

 

 

  • The database of Upper Limits from Pointed and Slew observations has been built for regions free of pointed and slew PPS sources. If there is a source detected by the Pipeline or in the catalogues, no upper limit is provided, it is recommended to click on the appropriate boxes such that sources are found and displayed in the results tabs.

  • The 4XMM-DR11 SED plots show the spectral energy density (ergs/s/cm2/micron) times the wavelength (in microns) computed at the central wavelength of the bands, so as to be consistent with what is plotted at other (longer) wavelength bands. This may be slightly different from the integral flux computed in the energy (frequency) band, displayed for the 4XMM-DR11 catalogue. Converting integral fluxes to flux densities at central wavelengths was done assuming that f(E) is constant in the band. Note that fluxes for the unique sources across all observations, SC_EP_flux, were used, instead of the per observation source fluxes EP_flux.

  • The observations performed in mosaic mode have a global Observation Data File (ODF) which is also split into 'pseudo ODFs' (see Chapter 2 of the Data Files Handbook).
    The ObsID of all 'pseudo ODFs' belonging to a mosaic have the first 8 digits in common (e.g. 06730001). Split 'pseudo ODFs' can be recognised because the last two digits of their ObsIDs are not 01 but 31, 32, 33, etc. (e.g. 0673000131, 0673000132 etc). Note that the data (i.e. the X-ray events) of the 'pseudo ODF' subsets has been extracted from the global ODF (i.e. the same data for the sky area covered in the pseudo ODF). Pseudo ODF subsets should therefore never be combined or merged with the global ODF.

  • JS9 display functionalities can be used for on-the-fly visualization of the PPS files in the list "Open FITS file with JS9". For "EPIC Events" it is convenient to bin the image by selecting View -> Bin/Filter/Section and typing for example bin=32 in the pop-up window. Then click "Run", and "Load full image" to view the entire "EPIC Events" image.   

  • To overlay (blend) or blink more than one image loaded in JS9, say an EPIC combined image and an OM image, you can first sync the display commands using:
          File -> sync ... -> sync images ... -> all images
    and then re-project the OM image to the EPIC image using:
          WCS -> wcs reproject -> all images in this display.
    Then, for example, blink the EPIC and OM images with:
          View -> Blinking

    Note: if you zoom or pan any of the images, you need to deselect and select again the images in the Blinking form, for the commands to apply to all loaded images.  

Older (valid) watchouts can be found here:

 
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Notes on the XSA releases

 

XSA version 15.0:   New

The XSA v15.0, released on 28 July 2022, includes the following:

  • Access to the new incremental EPIC (4XMM-DR12) catalogue
  • Access to the newly generated EPIC (4XMM-DR12s) stacked catalogue

XSA version 14.1:    

The XSA v14.1, released on 21 December 2021, includes the following:

  • Access to the new Finding Charts for 4XMM-DR11s
  • Access to the new SED for 4XMM-DR11
  • Update of the links for each 4XMM-DR11 source to the info available at IRAP (http://xmm-catalog.irap.omp.eu/) and XCAT-DB (http://xcatdb.unistra.fr/4xmmdr11/index.html)
  • Display of the distance between a 4XMM-DR11 source and the aim points of the EPIC cameras.
  • Date fields are now available in the format yyyy-mm-dd format for the XSA TAP service. Empty columns in XSA TAP service tables have been removed.

XSA version 14.0:

The XSA v14.0, released on 18 April 2021, includes the following:

  • Access to the new incremental EPIC (4XMM-DR11) catalogue
  • Access to the newly generated EPIC (4XMM-DR11s) stacked catalogue
  • Searches on the 4XMM-DR11 catalogue are performed by default with Quality flag < 2 (i.e. sources "good" or "sources with suspect parameters"), and with Detection maximum likelihood (DetML) > 10. These parameters can be changed in the main search panel

XSA version 13.1:

The XSA v13.1, released on 12 April 2021, includes the following:

  • Access to the database of Upper Limits calculated for all the public Pointed and Slew observations available in the XSA
  • SEDs provided by CDS updated for the 4XMM-DR10 catalogue
  • More AIO functionalities (level=SPECTRA or LIGHT_CURVE)
  • Redesign of the Multi-Object Search panel, including Upper limits search options

XSA version 13.0:

The XSA v13.0, released on 10 December 2020, includes the following:

  • Access to the new incremental EPIC (4XMM-DR10) catalogue
  • Access to the newly generated EPIC (4XMM-DR10s) stacked catalogue
  • Access to the new version of the XMM-Newton Optical Monitor (OM) catalogue. The OM Serendipitous Ultraviolet Source Survey Catalogue (XMM-OM-SUSS5.0) includes the parameters of 8.86 million detections from observations performed until February 2020.
  • Searches on the 4XMM-DR10 catalogue are performed by default with Quality flag < 2 (i.e. sources "good" or "sources with suspect parameters"), and with Detection maximum likelihood (DetML) > 10. These parameters can be changed in the main search panel
 

XSA version 12.3:

The XSA v12.3, released on 21 July 2020, includes among other improvements:

  • Possibility to select EPIC PPS sources or 4XMM-DR9 catalogue sources to be sent to the Basket and then download their spectra or their light curves
  • Visualization of RGS spectra of moving targets in their reference frame
  • Possibility to direct download 4XMM-DR9 SED fits files from the results tab, or to select and send them to the Basket for downloading them
  • Astroquery option to download EPIC pps images for different bands/instruments
 

XSA version 12.2:   

The XSA v12.2, released on 3 June 2020, includes among other improvements:

  • Display of the Spectral Energy Distributions (SEDs) produced by the XMM-Newton SSC for 4XMM-DR9 sources matching at least one of the archival catalogues queried
  • Display of the PPS EPIC-background time-series plots in the observations results tab
  • Visualization of EPIC images of moving targets in their reference framee
  • Links for each 4XMM-DR9 source to the info available at IRAP (http://xmm-catalog.irap.omp.eu/) and XCAT-DB (http://xcatdb.unistra.fr/4xmmdr9/index.html)
  • An astroquery module, astroquery.esa.xmm_newton, providing access to the XSA database

XSA version 12.1:   

The XSA v12.1, released on 9 March 2020, is running in a new machine, it also includes other improvements as:

  • Direct search by name of 4XMM-DR9 sources that are not yet resolved by Simbad/NED
  • Display of EPIC and RGS moving target postcards in the Details panel, when available
  • Link of 4XMM-DR9 catalogue sources to the corresponding XMM-Newton SSC info page

XSA version 12.0:   

The XSA v12.0, released on 17 Dec 2019, includes among other improvements the following:

  • Access to the bulk reprocessed pipeline products (PPS) of all the observations in the XSA archive
  • Access to the newly generated EPIC (4XMM-DR9) catalogue
  • Access to the newly generated EPIC (4XMM-DR9s) stacked catalogue
  • Searches on the 4XMM-DR9 catalogue are performed by default with Quality flag < 2 (i.e. sources "good" or "sources with suspect parameters"), and with Detection maximum likelihood (DetML) > 10. These parameters can be changed in the main search panel

XSA version 11.5:   

The XSA v11.5, released on 20 Nov 2019, includes among other improvements the following:

  • Adapt to the new ads publications format
  • Preparation for the ingestion of the bulk re-processed Pipeline products (PPS)
  • Disable the reprocess options, as bulk reprocessed products will be up-to-date

XSA version 11.4:   

The XSA v11.4, released on 05 Nov 2019, includes among other improvements the following:

  • More functionalities for the Results Display of "Search in a File":
    • It is now possible to display all together the results of searching a list of objects, which is particularly useful to find the PPS or catalogues sources found for the given list of positions
  • Footprints have been refined for "Search in the FOV"
  • More functionalities for the on-the-fly JS9 image visualizer:
    • Possibility to visualize, with JS9, the EPIC or OM image products without the need to download them previously. JS9 functionalities (similar to DS9) can then be used
    • Possibility to overlay (blend), blink, etc, of EPIC and OM images
    • Possibility to overlay on EPIC images the sources detected by the pipeline
  • The TAP QUERIES help Tab has been re-designed including more detailed examples of TAP queries via Command line

XSA version 11.3:   

The XSA v11.3, released on 06 Aug 2019, includes among other improvements the following:

  • More functionalities for the RGS Spectra Visualizer:
    • Larger sets of spectral lines available to overlay on the RGS spectra
    • Option to select/deselect the spectra to average, after plotting them
  • More functionalities for the JS9 image visualizer:
    • Possibility to visualize, with JS9, the EPIC or OM image products without the need to download them previously. JS9 functionalities (similar to DS9) can then be used.
    • Possibility to overlay EPIC PPS source regions on the images, and to identify them by their coordinates.
  • The INTERACTIVE ANALYSIS Tab now includes a more detailed help about these items and a video tutorial.

XSA version 11.2:

The XSA v11.2, released on 27 May 2019, includes among other improvements the following:

  • More functionalities for the RGS Spectra Visualizer:
    • Option to display 2 sets of spectral lines overlaid on the RGS spectra
    • Option to plot the flux errors as error bars
    • Option to use logarithmic scale for X axis

XSA version 11.1:

The XSA v11.1, released on 25 April 2019, includes among other improvements the following:

  • More functionalities for the RGS Spectra Visualizer:
    • Plot all or the average of the RGS fluxed spectra of selected observations
    • Select/deselect spectra from the list of obsIDs in the plot
    • Convert plot units Wavelength/Energy
    • Introduce redshift to display the spectrum in the rest frame
    • Define x,y plot ranges

XSA version 11.0:

The XSA v11.0, released on 14 March 2019, includes a new login system, managed via the ESA Cosmos Authentication System.

  • ESA Cosmos accounts have been created for those PIs that did not have it, and that have current or pending proprietary observations. Their account details have been provided by email.
  • Any other scientist without an existing ESA Cosmos account can register at:
        https://www.cosmos.esa.int/web/xsa/self-registration

Older XSA versions release notes can be found here

 
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Questions, Comments


If you have questions about the XMM-Newton Science Archive please contact us via the XMM-Newton Helpdesk

 
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