The INTEGRAL survey of the LMC: assessment study with the Observation Simulator

The Magellanic Clouds are ideal targets to exploit the imaging capabilities of the INTEGRAL instruments. A proposal has been made to devote the ISDC g uaranteed time to the observation of the LMC with the aim of (1) studying t he spectral/temporal properties of the hard X-ray emission from a number of known compact objects, (2) discovering new transient sources that could be come TOO, (3) searching for diffuse emission both in continuum and in lines , (4) studying serendipitous sources (AGNs). Here we present the main scien tific objectives of a systematic monitoring and a possible observation stra tegy to optimize the scientific return of this project, based on expected i nstrument performances and on a simulation obtained with the Observation Si mulator.