SOHO SPWG Minutes



SPWG FINAL MINUTES Friday May 23, 2003

1. Boundary conditions


* There is a chance there will be a (non-science) offpoint and/or roll
  maneuver during the next two weeks, to diagnose the High Gain
  Antenna anomaly. See note under AOB for details.

* The next maneuver is still scheduled for June 11, with the
  following fuel estimates: 0.3410 (Station keeping) + 0.0155 (Momentum
  management).  Total usage: 0.3565 kg.

  CDS will carry out filament dumps when door closed, from June 10,
  17:00 UT until June 13, 01:00 UT.  

* TRACE may experience a minor episode of atmospheric absorption near
  solstice.

* MDI continuous contacts: 

  Jun 18-23     MDI Continuous Contact
  Jul 23-28     MDI Continuous Contact
  Aug 27-Sep 1  MDI Continuous Contact
  Sep 22-Nov 23 MDI 60-Day Continuous Contact (SEE NOTE AT END OF SECTION)

* Submodes:

Submode 6 except for these submode 5 periods:

May 16-30       MEDOC campaign #11
Submode changes: 5->6 May 30 (19 UT)


* EIT Bakeout/CalRock/Shutterless/Other:

* May 26-Jun 1  EIT CME Watch in 304 Å
* Jun 20,24,28  EIT Shutterless #11 Segments 1, 2, Backup, TBC
* Jul 3-7       EIT Bakeout (tentative)
* August        EIT Calibration Rocket (TBC), POC: Jeff Newmark
* Sep 13,17,21  EIT Shutterless #12 Segments 1, 2, Backup, TBC
* Sep 18-22     EIT Bakeout (tentative)
          NOTE: This will move if backup day of last shutterless is used
* Nov 26        EIT Shutterless #13, Segment 1, TBC
* Dec 3,10      EIT Shutterless #13, Segment 2, Backup, TBC

* Commanding outlook: See AOB section.

* Long-term DSN outlook: November 1, 2003 - March 1, 2004 is a very
  heavily subscribed time for DSN. We may see some less contact time
  than we are used to.

  NOTE: There is a chance the 60-day continuous will be shifted
  somewhat earlier due to this.

2. Priorities for the coming month & more


a) Joint observing plans and campaigns

* May 18-25     JOP168 Sunspot Lightbridge Flows from Photosphere to Corona,
                  TRACE/SST/MDI/[CDS], 08-18 UT, POC: Tom Berger
* May 25-Jun 7  Quiet Sun Studies, TRACE/SST/MDI/[CDS], 08-18 UT
                  POC: Mats Carlsson
* Jun 8-Jun 22  Spicules, Mottles and Jets, TRACE/SST/MDI/[CDS]
                  08-18 UT, POC: Bart DePontieu

For details, see JOP168 and notes in last month's SPWG minutes
at http://soho.nascom.nasa.gov/operations/SPWG/spwg-20030425.html

TRACE is committed to supporting this campaign. Any other requests
(e.g. JOP163, JOP157) in this time frame have second priority; no
support unless they go with the La Palma target.

EIT's understanding is that this is a high-res program and EIT is not
really of interest to the observers.

At times, CDS may run their own studies on the same target that will
be complemented by the TRACE/La Palma observations. They cannot support
JOP168 due to the busy MEDOC schedule.

MDI will support the TRACE/SST studies.  They will also do
their best to coordinate with JOP163 during MEDOC, the Blinkers Study,
and JOP165. Part of the La Palma coordination June 8-22 will fall during
an MDI 5-day continuous contact; hopefully, the two can be coordinated.


* May 19-Jun 1  MEDOC Campaign #11 

See their calendar for details:
http://www.medoc-ias.u-psud.fr/operations/cmp11/calendar.html

UVCS will continue the Ulysses Quadrature until June 1:

* May 19-Jun 1  Ulysses Quadrature (#6942), UVCS/Ulysses, POC: Giannina Poletto

EIT will be doing a 304Å half-res CME Watch and synoptics for the 2nd
week of MEDOC to support JOP124 (and JOP157, which includes, but does
not specify, EIT observations).

JOP157 has not directly requested MDI support. They will try to
support but may be unable to do so due to prior commitments to the La
Palma QS Study with Mats Carlsson.

TRACE has recieved no request from JOP 157, but is listed as a
participant.


* Jun 14-17     Blinker Study, La Palma DOT/Tenerife VTT/MDI(TBC)/CDS,
                  POC: Hardi Peter, 09-12 UT and 14-17 UT, but first period 
                  first day and last period last day will not run.

MDI can only participate if target is nearby the La Palma target
(which will be active sun, not quiet sun, as the Blinker Study asks
for). Pick a QS area near the La Palma target, and they will do their
best to support both.


+ Jun 23-25     JOP155 Polar Coronal Jets, POC: Danuta Dobrzycka & Kuen Ko
                  UVCS/TRACE/CDS/EIT/LASCO
               
Possible reruns July 10-13 and October 17-23 (see UVCS individual
instrument plans).


* Jul 15-18     JOP166 Oscillations in Coronal Bright Points (TBC), 
                  CDS/MDI/TRACE/EIT, POC: Gerry Doyle
                  (jgd@star.arm.ac.uk)

TRACE has agreed to this JOP and this timeframe.
EIT images are needed for near-real-time target selection.

EIT: Synoptic and CME watch images should be available. If bakeout is
for some reason delayed to just before this time, TRACE will provide
mosaics (right, TRACE?) instead.

TRACE: Right!

CDS will participate, using real-time pointing.


* August        EIT Calibration Rocket (TBC), POC: Jeff Newmark

* Sep 13,17,21  EIT Shutterless #12 Segments 1, 2, Backup, TBC

* Sep 7-27      JOP165 High Cadence Active Region Oscillations: Center to 
                  limb variation (TBC), CDS/MDI/EIT/TRACE/SPIRIT, 
                  POC: Dipankar Banerjee (dipu@wis.kuleuven.ac.be)

NOTE: If the 60-day continuous for MDI is starting earlier than
planned, it may collide with JOP165.

CDS will support JOP165 and EIT shutterless. Need the date for EIT
calibration rocket.

MDI will try to coordinate as long as it does not conflict with the 60
day CC that may fall during that time period.

* Sep 18-30     Moving Magnetic Features Around Sunspots, MDI/TRACE/Sac Peak,
                  POC: Mandy Hagenaar (hagenaar@lmsal.com), Ted Tarbell

NOTE: MDI 60-day continuous will likely interfere with this.

MDI will try to coordinate as long as it does not conflict with the 60
day CC that may fall during that time period.


Continuing campaigns:

*               JOP159 CME's in Lyman-alpha (#6870), SWAN/LASCO/EIT/UVCS,
                  POC: Chris St Cyr, Eric Quemerais

Targets of opportunity for the whole period:

*               JOP136/MMOP009 Default RHESSI collaboration (#6850)
*               JOP153/MMOP003 Major Flare Watch (#6930)

Campaign number 6850 is for "individual instrument studies" selecting
an AR target [partially] influenced by the Max Millennium target.
This target will be observed by a significant number of ground based
observatories, so chances for serendipitous co-observations are good.

b) Intercalibration activities

Last Intercal 1: May 14 (Week 20)

* June 25/26    Intercal 1, CDS/EIT

c) Individual instrument plans

MDI:

See section 1 (boundary conditions) for MDI continuous contact periods.  

All requests for MDI support need to be made several months ahead of
time and sent to mdi-ops@mdisas.nascom.nasa.gov.

MDI's REQUEST page is at http://mdisas.nascom.nasa.gov/coordination.txt
NOTE: Listing of a study on that page means *only* that a request has been 
received, not that it will necessarily be supported.


UVCS:
  See their planning page (below) and the SOHO calendar for weekly plans.
  http://cfa-www.harvard.edu/uvcs/observations/obst.html

  Star observations on June 4 (Tau Tau) and June 13-16 (Zeta Tau).

  Coronal Jet Observations being planned for June 23-25 (JOP155
  listing in Joint Observations section above), July 10-13 and October
  17-23. Danuta Dobrzycka will contact instrument teams regarding the
  latter two periods later if support is requested.


CDS:
  See their request diary for details
    (http://solg2.bnsc.rl.ac.uk/scientificops/request.shtml)

CDS will carry out filament dumps when door closed, from June 10,
17:00 UT until June 13, 01:00 UT.  GIS raw data dumps are being
considered for June 23-29. Both activities require NRT.


LASCO/EIT:

See section 1 (boundary conditions) for EIT bakeouts/shutterless and
other special items.

LASCO may be requested to support IPS measurements of slow solar wind in
late May and/or early June with high cadence white-light measurements
(primarily C2). An EIT bakeout could be scheduled for this time to
optimise LASCO cadence. IPS teams are aware of expected SM5 periods and
conflicts are not expected.

The latest information on this indicates that LASCO will not do
anything out of the ordinary that impacts others.


TRACE:

NOTE that TRACE in general reserves the right to withdraw support from
agreed, existing collaborations if a sufficiently "good active region"
is called by the Max Millennium group.


3. AOB


* Next SPWG: Friday June 27, right after weekly meeting in the EOF

* For discussion: Dominc Zarro raises the question of making IAPs
  optional.

  Stein Haugan: They are actually being used for statistical purposes,
  to track and report on joint observation activities.

  Some other uses were also mentioned. We agreed that we will continue
  the production and processing of IAPs into KAPs, but the process may
  be moved from one machine to the other, and may be put under SOC
  care.

* Since early May, encoder readings from the High Gain Antenna E-W (Z
  axis) drive have been anomalous, with three lost pulses and two
  pulses somewhat out of phase. The last pulse (on Saturday May 17 ),
  however, was in phase. It is possible that the Program[me] Office
  may ask for a spacecraft maneuver in the next two weeks to determine
  the true pointing of the HGA, in order to confirm whether the
  anomaly occurred in real antenna motion or in an encoder. Such a
  maneuver would need to be scheduled on too short notice to allow
  detailed science planning, and could in in any case result in a
  brief disruption of science operations. We would also like to avoid
  any substantive mechanism movements if the maneuver is performed 
  outside of Nominal Mode.

  See http://soho.nascom.nasa.gov/soc/antenna_angles.pdf for a plot of
  HGA pointing vs time. 

  If we want to do a maneuver, it should be done before the antenna
  movement is "turned back", to preserve the evidence of any missed
  steps in the current direction. The HGA movements past May 25 (the
  nominal turning point) will be halted temporarily by allowing the
  movement table to expire, awaiting a decision on the maneuver.

  Note that THE NATURE OF THE MANEUVER IS NOT DETERMINED AT THE TIME
  OF WRITING: It may in principle be a combination of HGA Y axis
  movements, and spacecraft ROLL AND/OR OFF-POINT PROFILES, with
  concurrent readings of ground/spacecraft AGC (Automatic Gain
  Control) values to map out the beam pattern and orientation.

  It is therefore impossible to give any firm details about the
  maneuver at this time, but we'd like to make the following educated
  guesses to prepare your thinking about safing options: 

  A spacecraft offpoint will likely be as large as 2 degrees in the
  East-West direction, both directions. Rolls (if applicable) of
  roughly 20 degrees in each direction would be performed from the
  offpointed positions. Total duration of the maneuver is likely to be
  about half a working day. If no roll is involved, the spacecraft
  would likely be in Nominal Mode throughout the maneuver. If a roll
  is involved, CRP would be used. We realize that the safing options
  (if any) for some instruments will be entirely different for a roll
  vs an offpoint.

  As for the scheduling of the maneuver, it will be very dependent on
  DSN availability: At the moment, dates starting May 30 and into
  early June are being considered.
   
* DSN support should be requested at least 6 months in advance.  Keep
  this in mind for: ground-based collaborations that require MDI
  support, stellar/shutterless observations that require NRT, etc.

* If anyone has projects that require high-cadence MDI support, now is a
  good time to ask! If you need MDI data, make sure you request it
  specifically. There is no significant change in the shutter
  performance over the last 10 months; monitoring continues, but no
  immediate changes in operations are planned.

* Commanding outlook

- These times are subject to change
- More details available if wanted:

Week 23 - Jun 02 - Jun 08:  D27 in the afternoons of Monday and Saturday.
                            D27 all day on Tuesday, Thursday, Sunday.
                            Mid-day gaps on Monday, Wednesday, Friday.

Week 24 - Jun 09 - Jun 15:  Mid-day gaps on Monday and Saturday. D27 in the
                            afternoon on Monday. The rest of the week is
                            good. Maneuvers on Wednesday.

Week 25 - Jun 16 - Jun 22:  Gap then D27 on Monday and Tuesday. D27 in the
                            morning followed by a good station from Wednesday
                            through Friday. Weekend is good.

Week 26 - Jun 23 - Jun 29:  D27 all day on Monday and Sunday. Gaps from
                            Tuesday through Friday. Saturday is good.