Rolf Mewe: a career devoted to Xray spectroscopy

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Rolf Mewe a careerdevoted to X-ray spectroscopy

• Jelle S. Kaastra
• SRON

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Rolf Mewe 20 July 1935 4 May 2004
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Early career

• Taken by his father to space travel lectures 1952
• 1956 study at Zeeman lab, Amsterdam with
  Klinkenberg (old fashioned spectroscopy)
• 1959-1961 Army service, study of radio-active
  fall out
• 1961-1970 Rijnhuizen, study of gas discharges and
  hot fusion plasmas thesis 1969 with C. Braams
  and H.G. van Bueren

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SRON

• SRON (predecessors) founded 1961 by Kees de Jager
• Bert Brinkman had solar X-ray observations
• Rolf Mewe appointed at SRON 1970 simple task
  develop X-ray spectroscopy
• Rolfs own words in 2000 I was so naïve to
  promise to try this

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The ANS satellite

• First Dutch Satellite
• Launch 1974
• Soft X-rays (0.25 keV)
• Discovery of X-rays from Sirius (Nature paper
  Mewe et al. 1975)

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Chandra

• Rolf involved in making science case and
  simulations for AXAF?Chandra
• LETGS his favorite spectrometer
• Won lottery to be at launch of Chandra

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Other satellites

• ANS 1974
• Einstein 1978
• EXOSAT 1984
• YOHKOH 1991
• EUVE 1992
• ASCA 1993
• BeppoSAX 1996
• Chandra XMM-Newton 1999

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Spectral simulations
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Spectroscopic codes

• 1972 Mewe
• 1975 Mewe-Gronenschild
• 1985 Mewe-Gronenschild-van den Oord
• 1990 Meka
• 1994 Mekal
• 1992? SPEX

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Most cited X-ray papers (ADS)
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He-like line diagnostics

• Work on He-like triplets with Hans Schrijver
  1975-1980
• Recently followed up with Delphine Porquet et al.

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DEM modeling, stellar work

• Collaboration with many people
• Janusz Sylwester
• Karel Schrijver
• Manuel Güdel
• And many others

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Rolf and his Army

• Thanks to alternative civilian service,
  well-educated conscientious objectors served Rolf
  as unpaid data-aids
• Frans Alkemade
• Remco van der Rijst
• Max Duijsens

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Meka

• Development triggered by needs of SNR work at
  SRON-Leiden around 1990
• Restructuring the Mewe-Gronenschild-vdOord code
  and improving continuum
• NEI effects

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Meka ?Mekal (1994)
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The Mekal code
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Rolf at work
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Rolf and his office
Filling the new office
Fully loaded
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Rolf as a teacher
Aha!
What is this about?
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Rolf as a project leader
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Some characteristic poses
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The future of SPEX

• Code is maintained and updated by Kaastra
  Raassen, see _at_ sron web-site

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Dying in the armour

• niets bestaat dat niet iets anders aanraakt
• (nothing exists that does not touch something
  else)

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