The Science Analysis Subsystem (SAS) will be the software package for the reduction of XMM data from all science instruments, EPIC MOS & pn, RGS and OM (§ 6.1.3) and the production of standard data products, such as images, spectra and lightcurves. This chapter provides a general description of the SAS in order to introduce users to it and some data reduction strategies. The SAS is a modular and open stand-alone software system tailored to the needs for XMM data analysis, to which programmers can add their own routines. The Pipeline Component of the Pipeline Processing Subsystem (PPS; § 6.1.2) will be an integral part of the SAS, which will be used by the Survey Science Centre (SSC; Appendix B) for standard processing of XMM data.
The scope of the SAS is to process all XMM science data. The first inflight data to test the SAS with will come from the calibration and PV observations.
In addition, the SOC will use the SAS for instrument calibration, i.e., the creation of updates to the existing calibration information (CCFs).
The SAS will be supported for computers running the Solaris 2.6 operating system. It is currently under development and not yet publicly available.
More technical information on the scope of the SAS and on the design and coding of tasks can be found in the SAS User Requirements Document and the SAS Software Specification Document.
More information will be added here when it becomes available.