Summary: In­flight calibration of the XMM­Newton Reflection Grating
Spectrometers
C. Erd a , M. Audard b , A.J. den Boggende c , G. Branduardi­Raymont d ,
A.C. Brinkman c , J. Cottam e , L. Dubbeldam c , M. Guedel b , J.W. den Herder c ,
J.S. Kaastra c , S.M. Kahn e , R. Mewe c , F.B. Paerels e , J.R. Peterson e ,
A.P. Rasmussen e , I. Sakelliou d , J. Spodek e , K. Thomsen b , C.P. de Vries c , A. Zehnder b
a Astrophysics Division, Space Science Department of ESA, ESTEC, 2200 AG Noordwijk, NL
b Paul Scherrer Institute, 5232 Villigen, Switzerland
c Space Research Organization of the Netherlands, Sorbonnelaan 2, 3584 CA Utrecht, NL
d Mullard Space Science Laboratory, Holmbury St. Mary, Dorking, Surrey, TRH5 6NT, UK
e Astrophysics Laboratory, Columbia University, 550 West 120th Street,
New York, NY 10027, USA
ABSTRACT
The activities during the instrument calibrations are summarized and first data are presented. The main instrument
features, the line­spread function and the effective area, are discussed and the status of the in­flight calibrations is
summarized.
Keywords: XMM­Newton, RGS, Spectrometer, X­rays, Calibrations
1. INTRODUCTION
The Reflection Grating Spectrometer (RGS) 1--3 on European Space Agency's (ESA) X­ray observatory XMM­
Newton 4 is a dispersive spectrometer which, for the first time in X­ray astronomy, uses reflection gratings as dispersive

Source: Audard, Marc - INTEGRAL Science Data Centre & Observatory of Geneva, Université de Genève
Guedel, Manuel - Institut für Astronomie, Universität Wien

Collections: Physics