OPERATIONS
Science Operations
FINAL MINUTES FOR SOHO 29 May 2009 SPWG MEETING
1. Boundary conditions
a) Orbit, attitude and manoeuvres
- SOHO is upside down (180 degrees).
- manoeuvres
To the degree possible, manoeuvres take place during the last days of
34-m keyholes. Currently proposed or set manoeuvre dates are:
Aug 11 (TBC) station-keeping and momentum management
Aug 13 (TBC) roll (to approximately 0 degrees)
Nov 6 or 9 (TBC) station-keeping, momentum management and
roll (to approximately 180 degrees)
b) Communications with the spacecraft
Graphical DSN schedule: http://soho.nascom.nasa.gov/soc/dsn/
Keyhole dates for the next 6 months (All keyhole information is available
at or via http://soho.nascom.nasa.gov/soc/keyholes.html):
* Jul 22-Aug 20 26m Keyhole
* Jul 29-Aug 13 34m Keyhole
* Jul 22-Aug 20 26m Keyhole
* Jul 29-Aug 13 34m Keyhole
* Oct 27-Nov 13 26m Keyhole
* Oct 31-Nov 9 34m Keyhole
- End-of-pass handling during MDI continuous contact periods
To avoid problems with transmitter masks at the end of passes during MDI
continuous, DSN has requested we bring the carrier down 30 min before the
end of pass. As a result, the last 30 min of all MDI continuous contacts
will be TM only. For ranging passes, the spacecraft will be transitioned
to record ~1 h before the end of the pass. The station will drop the
carrier and re-sweep into receiver 2. The spacecraft will then be
transitioned back to VC2 and VC3.
- DSN 26 m antenna decommissioning and the keyholes
DSN is in the process of decommissioning its 26 m antennae --- the only
one left is DSS-46. According to current plans DSS-46 is to be
decommissioned Oct 31, 2009. DSS-46 may, however, be decommissioned as
early as Aug 3, 2009 and SOHO is preparing a request to postpone the
decommissioning until after the 2010 60-day continuous contact for the
SOHO/MDI-SDO/HMI cross-calibration.
Since the current high-gain antenna (HGA) position along the unmoved axis
has been optimized for 26 m antennas, the spacecraft team is
investigating moving the HGA to a position optimized for 34 m
antennae. Such a change would shorten or remove the keyholes, but DSN
resource allocation issues and possible impacts on MDI and MDI/SDO-HMI
cross-calibration period need to be addressed. For analyses and details
see the minutes of Science Working Team meeting number 40 (available at
http://sohowww.nascom.nasa.gov/operations/SWT/Minutes/swt40.pdf, pages
38--41).
c) KNOWN submode (SM) dependent activities/submode changes:
* TOO JOP153/MMOP003 Future Major Flare Watch (SM5 if SUMER
observes target, SM6 otherwise)
* Jun 1-Jul 10 Sunrise 5-day balloon flight
* Jun 25, Jul 2 EIT shutterless #36 (time TBC)
* Oct 8, 15 EIT shutterless #37 (time TBC)
* Jan 7, 15 EIT shutterless #38 (time TBC)
SUMER campaign dates may overlap with keyholes. Such overlaps shall be
scheduled only if periods of no SUMER data between passes are acceptable.
SUMER will observe during the Sunrise balloon flight. Note, that the
balloon launch is scheduled for Jun 1 - Jul 5 and the duration is
expected to be 5 days. SUMER has also inquired about two-day testing
period in Jun 2-5 (possibly not contiguous with the Sunrise flight) and a
short period of SUMER-Hinode joint prominence observations after Sunrise
flight has been proposed by Len Culhane. Timings of these SUMER
activities are TBC.
For submode change plan for the Sunrise flight see the Sunrise entry in
section 2a below. EIT acknowledges that the Sunrise flight needs take
priority.
Except for Major Flare Watches, TRACE will be doing full disk mosaics
if/when EIT is not able to do synoptic sets due to keyhole operations.
d) Instrument maintenance activities
EIT bakeouts will take place during keyholes. Next bakeout timing is
TBD.
e) Spacecraft maintenance activities
Since the FOT staffing (and hence the FOT's resources to implement
changes quickly) will decrease towards the end of this calendar year, all
instrument teams are reminded to review not only thermal, but also other
limits as well as TSTOL procedures and scripts for possible changes.
f) Others
TRACE eclipse season began on 13 Sep 2008 and will be ongoing, except for
the following predicted non-eclipse period in 2009:
Jul 28 -- Sep 9
TRACE will not perform science operations from May 15 - July 20, and
from September 30 through early December.
Daytime weekday passes of Mon-Wed are currently automated but
attended. Thu-Fri passes remain crewed for training and proficiency
reasons. Date of transition to unattended daytime automation remains TBD.
NRT during automated passes (both weekend and weekday) is currently
paused (briefly) regularly for resets of software anomalies. NRT schedule
(which includes the pauses) for all automated passes can be found at
http://sohowww.nascom.nasa.gov/soc/nighttime_nrt.txt.
The development of a software anomaly detection system (which would pause
NRT only when needed instead of the current regular pauses) has been put
on hold due to problems in development.
2. Priorities for the coming month and more
a) Joint observing plans and campaigns
Continuing campaigns:
* 2002/02/25-- JOP136 Default RHESSI Collaborations (#6850),
POC: Tero Siili
* 2003/05/13-- Default CDS Co-observations with TRACE (#6950)
* 2005/09/20-- JOP153/MMOP003 Future Major Flare Watch (#8008)
* 2007/03/20-- Default CDS/Hinode-EIS co-observations (#7200)
Campaign #6850 is for "individual instrument studies" selecting an active
region target [partially] influenced by the Max Millennium target
selection to maximise chances of serendipitous co-observations.
EIT supports all with half/full-res 195 A CME watch in submode 5/6. It is
clear that STEREO-EUVI provides adequate "context" information for RHESSI
flare observations. Routine EIT submode and resolution switches are
probably no longer needed.
* Mar 16 - Sep LASCO C2pB for Tomography Reconstruction,
POC: Angelos Vourlidas, Richard Frazin
* Mar 27- JOP 222 (ToO) Detecting the Origin of Shock-Accelerated Solar
Energetic Particles, LASCO/STEREO-SECCHI
POC: Angelos Vourlidas
LASCO is ready to run the JOP, awaiting a target.
* May 15-Jul 20 TRACE not performing science operations
* May 17-Jul 21 MDI 60-day continuous contact
MDI will run p30vr_fd_c1, a full disk, 1 minute cadence Velocity and
Continuum campaign during the 60 day CC along with the usual 96 minute
Full Disk synoptic Magnetograms and Continuum. The only possible change
to this observing sequence will be to change to p30vr_fd_m1, a full disk,
1 minute cadence Velocity and Magnetogram campaign to support the 5 day
Sunrise balloon flight.
* Jun 1-Jul 10 Sunrise 5-day balloon flight, MDI/SUMER/TRACE,
POC: Davina Innes
In June or July 2009 a balloon borne solar observatory called 'Sunrise'
is planned to be launched and SoHO (at least MDI and SUMER) as well as
TRACE supports have been requested.
The launch date will be sometime between Jun 1 and Jul 5, 2009 and the
flight lasts 5 days. Coordinated observations with SoHO would therefore
be for five days sometime between 1 June to 10 July 2009. NOTE: TRACE
has announced, that no science operations will be conducted from May 15 -
July 20 (see also section 2c and
http://chippewa.nascom.nasa.gov/TRACE/ops/timeline/monthly_plan/current_plan.txt).
A short description of SUNRISE is given in
http://star.mpae.gwdg.de/Sunrise/project/publicat/SPIE_2004.pdf
To facilitate co-observations with ground based telescopes and satellite
instruments, a webpage has been created which will include all required
informations for co-observations. The URL is:
http://www.mps.mpg.de/services/sunrise/sot/sot.php
The page contains the complete observation timeline for the first SUNRISE
science flight, including timing and pointing information. For each
SUNRISE observing program the required co-observations will be
specified. Some of this information may at this time (21 May) be only
partly included but will be completed within the next days.
The exact timing information will be known not until the instrument is
launched and commissioning is completed. Moreover, the launch date is
depending on technical readiness and mainly weather conditions at the
launch site.
A tentative timeline of the flight is below (for further details see the
website given above):
Major milestones (x = moment of tether cutting):
x - 3 weeks: Hardware arrives at lauch facilty
x - 3 days : Launch readiness review
x - 3 days : SUMER opens aperture door (remotely)
x -24 hours: Next day launch announcement
x + 1 hour : Launch confirmed
x + 6 hours: Ascent completed
x + 6 hours: Switch-on sequence and initial tests
x +12 hours: SUNRISE operational
x +12 hours: SOHO submode switch
x + 5 days : Science operations completed
Submode change 6 -> 5 is proposed to take place during the next working
shift after SUNRISE is launched. The timing will be set to allow CDS to
reach safe state immediately after a possible crash and continue its
recovery as soon as NRT becomes available thereafter (facilitated by SOHO
being in continuous contact). A more detailed timeline is below:
Time Activity
UT EDT CEST
0300-0530 2300-0130 0500-0730 Decision to launch Sunrise
0530-0800 0130-0300 0730-1000 Sunrise launch
1030-1300 0800-1030 1230-1500 Start of observations
The submode change has been proposed to take place
1200-1330 0800-0930 1000-1130
or as soon after SVM as possible.
MDI can support with full-disk, 1-min cadence magnetograms and
dopplergrams if there is high rate at the time. MDI support will be the
ONLY interruption to the 60 day CC plans of running a Full Disk Velocity
and Continuum campaign. See above notes for the 60 day CC period.
SOHO will NOT go to record at any point for this flight since it will
occur during the 60 day Continuous Contact period.
* Jun 6-Jul 15 SUMER-Hinode prominence observations (TBC), SUMER/CDS/Hinode
POC: Werner Curdt, Len Culhane, Tom Berger
Joint SUMER-Hinode observations after the Sunrise campaign have been
proposed. Duration is not known and timing is dependent on the
Sunrise. In the absence of detailed information, we have assumed here a
5-day period after Sunrise mission end.
CDS will participate/support and requests to be added to the mailing
list.
MDI will only be able to provide either Full Disk Dopplergrams and
Continuum images along with the usual 96 minute synoptic Full Disk
Magnetograms/Continuum images.
* Jun 25 (TBC) EIT shutterless #36 run 1
Hopefully no conflict between Sunrise and SUMER 5-day observations. Due
to the continuous contact can possibly be adjusted.
* Jul 2 (TBC) EIT shutterless #36 run 2
Hopefully no conflict between Sunrise and SUMER 5-day observations. Due
to the continuous contact can possibly be adjusted.
* July 21 (TBC) HERSCHEL sounding rocket launch,
CDS/EIT/LASCO/UVCS/STEREO/TRACE
POC: Dan Moses, Lucia Abbo
HERSCHEL has successfully passed all per-launch testing, and has
requested launch time July 21 at 19:10 UT, but the time remains TBC. The
time is chosen for good coordination opportunities with observations in
conjunction with the July 22 Solar eclipse.
The rocket payload consists of a suite of 3 instruments:
SCORE/Ultraviolet Coronagraph Imager (UVCI), Herschel EIT (HEIT) and
Helium Coronagraph (HeCor). The HERSCHEL Sun-Earth Sub-Orbital Program
is a sounding-rocket payload designed to investigate Helium coronal
abundance and solar wind acceleration from a range of solar source
structures by obtaining simultaneous observations of the electron, proton
and Helium Solar coronae. HERSCHEL will provide the first measurements of
the coronal He abundance in source regions of the solar wind, thus
bringing key elements to our understanding of the Sun-Earth connections.
Timing and supporting SOHO instruments remain TBC. The HERSCHEL team is
currently involved in integration and test activities. The critical
milestones thereof are expected to be completed by the beginning of
March. The official request on the launch date will not be made until
then.
EIT is OK with SOHO being in submode 5. Support will be a four-filter
synoptic set binned over the rocket flight timing.
LASCO support will be C2 pB set orange filter binned before and after the
flight time around the EIT filter set.
CDS will participate, taking on-disk He I and 2nd order He II
observations. Request to add CDS planner to the mailing list.
TRACE hopes to support HERSCHEL sounding rocket launch, but support
depends on the scheduled downtime.
See also section 2b (intercalibration activities) for proposed
SOHO/STEREO/TRACE/HERSCHEL cross-calibration.
* Jul 22 Total Solar eclipse (around 0236 UT), EIT/LASCO,
POC: J. Pasachoff, A. Sterling, L. Damé, K. Schenk
Information on the eclipse itself can be found at URL
http://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/SEpubs/20090722/TP214169a.pdf. The key
numbers can be found also at
http://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/SEmono/TSE2009/TSE2009iau/TSE2009-fig01.GIF. The
external/internal contacts of Umbra occur at:
U1 = 00:51:14.3 UT
U2 = 00:54:28.4 UT
U3 = 04:16:10.5 UT
U4 = 04:19:23.9 UT
Tentative DSN schedule for the eclipse date and the preceding date is as
follows:
Jul 21 D45 2315-0215
Jul 22 D65 0720-1120
Jul 22 D27 1830-2230 (uplink)
Jul 22 D15 1830-2230 (downlink)
The week has not been negotiated and there is no guarantee that the
passes remain as is. Unless the DSN supports change, SOHO will not be
able to be in contact during the eclipse. SOCs will attempt to obtain
DSN support better covering the eclipse.
Jay Pasachoff's, Alphone Sterling's and Damé/Koutchmy/Kuzin/Nagnibeda
expeditions will observe the eclipse from Tianhuangping (vicinity of
Hangzhou), China. Mid-eclipse time will be at 01:36 UT. The team would
like to have a full set of EIT and LASCO images, one of each type, as
close as possible to that time and repeating as often as possible +/- 3
min from mid-eclipse, if it is possible to get more than one image during
our totality (which is probably not possible).
EIT/LASCO acknowledges the support requests and will support. Details of
support remain TBD --- EIT and LASCO will produce the observation
timeline approximately 10 days prior to launch. The plan is to support
all totality timings while also adjusting if needed for EIT instrument
safety during DSN contact outage. EIT may not move its sector wheel for
a 4 filter sequence while in a DSN gap with longer than 2 h until
contact.
SOHO web pages for this eclipse will be set up in June 2009 and linked
from http://sohowww.nascom.nasa.gov/operations/operations.html.
* Jul 28 (TBC) SUMI sounding rocket launch, CDS/MDI/TRACE, TBC
POC: Jonathan Cirtain (TBC)
The launch date is approximately a week into the Aug 2009 keyhole, which
very likely will restrict MDI and SUMER supports.
SUMI will provide a support request soon --- possibly by mid-June. Based
on information from the SUMI POC, full-disk magnetograms seem to be the
baseline request with high-res observations if feasible and a suitable
target is in MDI high-res field-of-view. Due to the keyhole conditions
the timing of SUMI observations is relevant even for the full-disk
magnetogram supports.
TRACE has been asked to support this rocket launch.
* Sep 23-Oct 9 Coordinated campaign with THEMIS,
POC: Brigitte Schmieder
Coordinated observations between SOHO instruments during observations at
the THEMIS vector magnetograph are proposed. JOPs 157 and 178 are the
proposed observing programs, but the descriptions will need to be
updated. At least CDS, EIT and SUMER are mentioned in the current JOP
descriptions.
Timing remains TBC.
MDI has been in touch with the POC re: supporting with full-disk
observations. Full-disk magnetograms seem to be sufficient, but it may be
possible after Sep 30 to do High Resolution observations if the JOP's
require MDI to do so.
* Sep 30-Dec TBD TRACE not performing science operations
* Oct 8 (TBD) EIT shutterless #37 run 1
* Oct 15 (TBD) EIT shutterless #37 run 2
* Jan 7 (TBD) EIT shutterless #38 run 1
* Jan 15 (TBD) EIT shutterless #38 run 2
b) Intercalibration activities
Last ICAL was: May 21
ICALs are normally performed monthly. Below is a SOC proposal for ICAL
weeks for the next six months. Baseline will be to schedule it for
Thursday during contact.
* Jun 15-19 ICAL01 (#7113), CDS/EIT/STEREO/Hinode-EIS(TBD)/Hinode-SOT(TBD)
The Sunrise balloon flight period may need to be taken into account in
scheduling.
* Jul 13-17 ICAL01 (#7113), CDS/EIT/STEREO/Hinode-EIS(TBD)/Hinode-SOT(TBD)
* July 21 (TBC) ICAL14 SOHO-STEREO-TRACE-HERSCHEL radiometric
cross-calibration (TBC),
EIT/LASCO/UVCS/STEREO/TRACE/HERSCHEL,
POC: Lucia Abbo
A radiometric cross-calibration between SOHO, STEREO, TRACE and the
HERSCHEL sounding rocket has been proposed. A preliminary draft of the
ICAL proposal can be found at
http://sohowww.nascom.nasa.gov/soc/JOPs/ical014-draft.pdf.
TRACE hopes to support HERSCHEL sounding rocket launch, but support
depends on the scheduled downtime.
* Aug 17-21 ICAL01 (#7113), CDS/EIT/STEREO/Hinode-EIS(TBD)/Hinode-SOT(TBD)
NOTE: the Aug 2009 keyhole ends on 20 Aug 2009, hence this run should be
possible during the proposed time, but may also be postponed to the
following week.
* Sep 14-18 ICAL01 (#7113), CDS/EIT/STEREO/Hinode-EIS(TBD)/Hinode-SOT(TBD)
* Oct 12-16 ICAL01 (#7113), CDS/EIT/STEREO/Hinode-EIS(TBD)/Hinode-SOT(TBD)
* Nov 16-20 ICAL01 (#7113), CDS/EIT/STEREO/Hinode-EIS(TBD)/Hinode-SOT(TBD)
Proposed compiled ICAL scheduling criteria, constraints and guidelines
(see also campaign #7113):
1) EIT/CDS are the primary participating instruments
2) STEREO-EUVI observations are included when possible. ICALs are
attempted to be scheduled not to coincide with STEREO manoeuvres or
other interruptions in observations (see
http://stereo-ssc.nascom.nasa.gov/plans.shtml).
3) EIT: ICALs OK at all other times except the weeks of shutterless
4) Dates, details and confirmation will be determined by the planners
with support from the SOHO SOCs.
5) Neither Hinode-SOT nor Hinode-XRT have current interest in
participating in ICALs. Hinode-EIS will from time-to-time perform its
sensitivity calibration exercise, but has no need to perform this
regularly as part of the SOHO ICAL. When it is convenient for
Hinode-EIS (given Hinode's constraints), SOHO will be informed ahead
of time of when the sensitivity calibration is to be performed. It
will then be up to SOHO whether to follow Hinode-EIS' pointing and
timing.
CDS OK. If Hinode-EIS can suggest convenient date & time, CDS can usually
accommodate.
c) Individual instrument plans
MDI:
See section 2a for MDI continuous contact periods.
MDI may reduce the ALT cadence during Keyholes to be less than 15 ALT
magnetograms per day if the lack of high rate telemetry is such that we
will lose all or almost all of the 15 ALT Magnetograms each day. The ALT
cadence will be decided on an individual Keyhole basis and even a daily
basis during each Keyhole depending on the 70 m antenna availability at
the time. MDI may also down-link select magnetograms in the 5 kbps
telemetry if no 70 m passes are available at least every 2 days for Mag
dump in the 160 kbps telemetry.
All requests for MDI support need to be made several months ahead of time
and sent to mdi-ops(at)mdisas.nascom.nasa.gov. Even outside keyholes,
MDI can only do 1-minute cadence observations when we have contact and
there is no recorder dump in progress.
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.
A description of MDI Observing Modes most used for JOPs and campaigns (FD
vs. HR) can be found at http://mdisas.nascom.nasa.gov/Collaborate.
Anyone requesting MDI observations is encouraged to read this page in
order to have a better idea of what observing modes would be best suited
for a particular study. More detailed information about how MDI
operates, observational constraints and telemetry information can be
found at http://mdisas.nascom.nasa.gov/MDI_Collaboration_Details.
MDI has switched to Focus 5 (best focus for full-disk observing) on Oct
23, 2008.
MDI will do Full Disk Velocity observations for March and September 2009.
These FD Velocity observations are reserved specifically to collaborate
with Hinode-SOT. MDI also reserves the March (28-30) continuous contact
for FD Helioseimology studies with Hinode-SOT.
First, is there an update to the DSN impact due to the LRO launch
scheduled for June 17? How many days can we expect to lose DSN support
from Canberra (just June 17 or whatever day they launch?). If the launch
slips, will the FOT rewrite the pass plan for a given day to recover MDI
high rate for Canberra passes? Or will we just lose Canberra passes each
day even if LRO doesn't launch?
MDI would like to put in a formal request to get 70m antenna support for
at least two of the upcoming 180 degree rolls during Keyholes. MDI would
like to use one roll to observe in VC2 (or "high rate") in Full Disk mode
taking FD Dopplergrams and Continuum images. MDI would then like to
observe in VC2 (high rate data) during a second roll (during another
Keyhole) to conduct a jitter test. Both of these requests need VC2 data
for about and hour.
We should get these requests in to DSN asap if the various SOHO parties
are OK with these two requests.
UVCS:
For weekly plans, see the SOHO calendar and the UVCS planning page:
http://www.cfa.harvard.edu/uvcs/observations/obst.html.
CDS:
For details see http://solar.bnsc.rl.ac.uk/scientificops/request.shtml.
EIT/LASCO:
EIT: 195 A CME watch plus synoptics at 6-hour cadence, as usual. Full-res
CME watch whenever we're in submode 6. Hope never to change until the
Bogart mission.
EIT and LASCO will perform the annual full calibration set June 8-12,
2009. These calibrations take approximately 3 days while in submode 6
during normal daytime DSN passes. The calibrations can also be carried
out in submode 5, albeit taking longer to complete. Sunrise has priority
and the calibration dates can be changed while still in MDI continuous
DSN coverage through July 21.
SUMER:
See section 2a for details.
SUMER has plans for another campaign after SDO commissioning. Dates are
still TBD.
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.
For TRACE summer eclipse season see section 1f.
TRACE will not perform science operations from May 15 - July 20, and from
September 30 through early December. See also
http://chippewa.nascom.nasa.gov/TRACE/ops/timeline/monthly_plan/current_plan.txt.
3. Any other business
* Tentative SPWG meeting times for next six months (only the next one will be decided in this meeting). Meetings take place as a baseline on Fridays after the daily and weekly meetings. Jun 19 Jul 24 Aug 21 Sep 25 Oct 30 Nov 20 The rest are FYI items: * In the future SOHO's DSN contacts will grow shorter as we lose 26-m antenna support and other, new missions get higher priority. The instrument teams are therefore requested to look at the NRT commanding that is done (especially for emergencies and recoveries) and see what can be converted into TSTOLs that the FOT can run (even without explicit instrument or SOC direction). * MDI high-rate support requests: no change, see URL http://sohowww.nascom.nasa.gov/operations/SPWG/spwg-20080118.html * DSN support requests: preferably 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. * Future Mercury and Venus transits: no change, see URL http://sohowww.nascom.nasa.gov/operations/SPWG/spwg-20080118.html * Hinode operational and planning information and guidelines: no change, see URL http://sohowww.nascom.nasa.gov/operations/SPWG/spwg-20080118.html and http://sohowww.nascom.nasa.gov/soc/JOPs/jop-submit.html * STEREO operational and planning information: no change, see URL http://sohowww.nascom.nasa.gov/operations/SPWG/spwg-20080118.html * The SOHO JOP/ICAL database and the web pages are now the Solar JOP/ICAL database and web pages. This is due to anticipated increased contributions by and collaborations as well as intercalibrations with STEREO and Hinode. * New JOP vs. modified existing JOP rules-of-thumb: no change, see URL http://sohowww.nascom.nasa.gov/operations/SPWG/spwg-20080118.html * SOHO calendar email notifications: no change, see URL http://sohowww.nascom.nasa.gov/operations/SPWG/spwg-20080118.html
