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- Chair Karl Forster (Caltech, NuSTAR) - krl at srl.caltech.edu
- Members
Manabu Ishida (chair; JAXA, Suzaku, Astro-H) membership list being updated (2021-05-20)
Mission statement
The goal of this working group is to facilitate the coordination of calibration observations among operational observatories and the analysis and publication of the corresponding data. An annual cross-calibration observation of the quasar 3C 273 involving as many operational observatories as possible is undertaken in June/July each year.
This working group also supports additional opportunities for coordinated cross-calibration observations between observatories.
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Activity
2021-05-18 - Chairs report at 2021 IACHEC Spring WG meeting is available here
2021-05-13 - WG meeting on zoom
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2021 2021 May 13th Working group meeting
Attending (in alphabetical order):
Dipankar Bhattacharya, Karl Forster, Felix Fuerst, Jamie Kennea, Kristin Madsen, Herman Marshall, Eric Miller, Katja Pottschmidt, Celia Sanchez, Norbert Schartel, Michael Smith, Allyn Tennant, Yukikatsu Terada, Panayiotis Tzanavaris, Josh Wing
Review status of working group
- The chair has been very quiet since the last IACHEC meeting in May 2019 (apologies).
- Membership is open to all and has 60 colleagues subscribed to the WG slack channel (#coordinated-obs)
- Cross-calibration observations on 3C 273 were coordinated (thanks to Josh W. for starting the ball rolling with Chandra constraints each year)
- 2019-07-02 to 03 - Chandra, INTEGRAL, NICER, NuSTAR, Swift, XMM
- 2020-07-06 to 07 - Chandra, INTEGRAL, NICER, NuSTAR, Swift, XMM
- Communications
- There were no strong opinions about how best to communicate between WG members. Currently:
- email chair (Karl F.) krl _at_ srl.caltech.edu
- Slack channel: iachec.slack.com
- an email list server (hosted by Caltech) may be set up by Karl F. depending on what the other WG’s think (particularly the communications WG).
- DONE - iachec-co-obs@lists.srl.caltech.edu is active
- There were no strong opinions about how best to communicate between WG members. Currently:
- Dissemination of observation scheduling information
- International standards for target visibility and observation schedules have been developed by a team at ESAC, see https://www.cosmos.esa.int/web/vovisobs_protocols/home
- A client using these standards (ObjVisSAP, ObsLocTAP) implemented for INTEGRAL, XMM-Newton, Chandra, and NuSTAR is active (TOBY), see http://integral.esa.int/toby/
- (just click on the Calculate button to get latest schedules)
- Observatories are joining the callobaration (GAIA, NOT, MAGIC, XRISM)
- All IACHEC observatories are encouraged to join
- See also SmartNet http://www.isdc.unige.ch/smartnet/index.php
- Information about calibration targets and upcoming observations collected in google sheets
A/I Request that WG chairs look at lists on the google sheets and make/suggest additions/corrections
2021 3C 273 Cross-calibration campaign
- Confirmed observations scheduled for 2021 June 9th to 11th with Chandra, INTEGRAL, NuSTAR, XMM
A/I Swift - Jamie K. thinks it likely that Swift will perform some observations - will contact Andy B. to check
A/I NICER - Karl F. will contact NICER team to see if they will join
- Kristin M. is advising two SURF students this (2021) summer in analysis of 3C 273 data taken since 2015
| Mission | 2015 | (ks) | 2016 | (ks) | 2017 | (ks) | 2018 | (ks) | 2019 | (ks) | 2020 | (ks) | 2021 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chandra | 2015-07-14 | 30 | 2016-06-27 | 30 | 2017-06-26 | 27 | 2018-07-04 | 30 | 2019-07-03 | 30 | 2020-07-06 | 29 | Y |
| INTEGRAL | 2015-07-13 | 150 | 2016-06-26 | 100 | 2017-06-26 | 175 | 2018-07-04 | 100 | 2019-07-02 | 100 | 2020-07-04 | 120 | Y |
| NICER | 2018-07-09 | 1.5 | 2019-06-30 | 38 | 2020-07-08 | 25 | ? | ||||||
| NuSTAR | 2015-07-13 | 49 | 2016-06-26 | 35 | 2017-06-26 | 35 | 2018-07-04 | 40 | 2019-07-02 | 49 | 2020-07-06 | 44 | Y |
| Swift | 2015-07-12 | 18 | 2016-06-26 | 40 | 2017-06-23 | 22 | 2018-07-14 | 17 | 2019-07-12 | 16 | 2020-07-16 | 18 | ? |
| XMM | 2015-07-13 | 72 | 2016-06-26 | 67 | 2017-06-26 | 67 | 2018-07-04 | 78 | 2019-07-02 | 69 | 2020-07-06 | 70 | Y |
- This will be an update to Madsen et al. (2017) AJ 153, 2 https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/1538-3881/153/1/2
A/I Kristin M. Requests the teams (Chandra, Swift, XMM, NICER) provide (processed) data ready for joint analysis
- It has always been difficult for Astrosat to join because 3C 273 is at low declination
- 3C 273 is a good target for XMM-RGS but there is pileup for EPIC instruments
A/I Karl F. will contact Konrad D. to see if SRG-eROSITA/ART-XC has survey footprint close to dates of IACHEC campaigns
Additional cross-calibration opportunities
- NuSTAR / XMM-Newton observations of the Crab in 2020/22
- Leading to revised calibration expected in 2021
- Insight-HXMT will join in future observations - Lian T.
IACHEC Support for in-flight calibration of upcoming missions
IXPE - From Allyn T.
- Launch planned for 2021 November 17th
- Science observations begin around mid-December
- Target Visibility will be 90 deg from the Sun +/- 25 deg
- For observatory verification plan to observe:
- Crab: Two half-day observations separated by about a week (due to telemetry limit)
- 1ES 1959+650: used to check alignments - good target for IXPE as it is close to NEP and not too bright or faint
A/I Begin scheduling discussions a few months before launch (discuss details at September IACHEC meeting?)
- From Herman M.
- May also use Cyg X-1 in observatory verification
- Must be careful not to perform observations that potentially step on goals of science investigations
- Other coordinations?
- Astrosat-CZTI - Dipankar B.
- Polarization seen in Crab data and possibly Cyg X-1
- However - energy range (>100 keV) not close to IXPE (< 10 keV) so cross-calibration is likely to be a science investigation
- Astrosat-CZTI - Dipankar B.
- Other polarization missions?
- POLSTAR - not launched
- polarlight - GPD
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