WEBSITE OVERVIEW

This website provides experimental access to the STONKS long-term variability estimator for XMM-Newton data. It is provided by the ACDS in Strasbourg, and is based on a compilation of multi-mission archival X-ray data.

What STONKS does: if you provide either an EPIC source list (*EP*OBSMLI* file) or a tar ball containing an EPIC source list and an EPIC image, it will compare the positions and fluxes of new detections to any known archival X-ray data, including prior upper limits. If such data is available, STONKS:

• Estimates the long-term variability of the source,
• Builds a multi-instrument lightcurve, with a 4'x4' EPIC view around the source,
• Builds approximate multi-instrument spectra, using the available band photometry for each mission.

Results are then returned in the form of a tar ball, containing one PDF file and one JSON file for each variable source in the observation. For further information on the methods and approximations, see the online documentation.

Once generated and manually inspected, publishable alerts are made available at http://flix.irap.omp.eu/stonks

Please note that it is in its early beta stage...