The 3XMM Catalogue

Preparation of the 3XMM source catalogue is in progress by the XMM-Newton Survey Science Centre (SSC) and it is expected to be released by the end of 2012. 3XMM will be based on a uniform reprocessing of all publicly available XMM EPIC data, with ~30% more observations than its immediate predecessor (2XMM-DR3) and nearly a factor two more than the 2XMM catalogue published in 2009 (the last bulk reprocessing of the database; Watson et al 2009). We expect ~460k detections associated with ~340k unique sources, from a (non-overlapping) sky area of ~650 square degrees. The 3XMM catalogue will thus ensure that the XMM serendipitous source survey continues to provide the largest available catalogue of celestial X-ray sources; this will remain true until the completion of the first part of the e-ROSITA survey in several years' time. The 3XMM data processing incorporates several additions and enhancements relative to the previous versions, including: S:N-optimised extraction of source spectra and time series, optimised removal of time periods of high background and several other enhancements, eg. the use of a higher-accuracy PSF to reduce the number of spurious sources and improved astrometric rectification. This talk will outline these improvements, summarise the catalogue statistics, and give a few preliminary highlights of individual sources and of other associated analyses.