OPERATIONS
Science Operations
FINAL MINUTES FOR SOHO 19 Jun 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
* 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 in Aug 2009.
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 D27 and 34 m
antennae. Such a change would shorten the keyholes (optimization for 34 m
antennae without the D27 would remove the keyholes entirely), 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
* 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.
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.
The available power from the solar arrays is decreasing. Currently we
still have sufficient margin, but in the future the decrease per year
(now ca. 1 A) may increase to 3 A per year. We have to be prepared to
reduce our power needs as much as possible. On the spacecraft side
several adjustments have already been made and there is not much more
that can be done. Therefore we are asking the instrument teams,
especially the 'big' power consumers LASCO/EIT, CDS, UVCS and SUMER, to
start looking into ways of reducing their power consumption
(e.g. different operating modes, heater reductions, ...). Hopefully we
will not have to use this reduced power mode very soon, but it is better
to be prepared in case a power reduction is needed. More details coming
later.
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.
MDI supported the SUNRISE balloon flight successfully, though
communication about what has going on with the balloon and required
observations from MDI were very, very limited.
* Jul 2 EIT shutterless #36, 17-20 UT
* July 21 HERSCHEL sounding rocket launch,
CDS/EIT/LASCO/MDI/UVCS/STEREO/TRACE
POC: Dan Moses, Lucia Abbo
HERSCHEL has successfully passed all per-launch testing, and has
requested launch time (T=0) on Jul 21 at 19:10 UT and the maximum delay
is not expected to exceed 1 h. The range schedule meeting for the
HERSCHEL launch will be on Jul 24. The proposed time is chosen for good
coordination opportunities with observations in conjunction with the July
22 Solar eclipse. The HERSCHEL observational sequence begins at
approximately T+65 s and ends by T+500 s.
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.
The supporting LASCO+EIT observations should complete at least 1 cycle of
images after the end of the HERSCHEL observing program. MDI 96-min
cadence magnetograms are requested (and they will be the baseline MDI
support), but possibilities of being in VC2 will be investigated by the
SOCs.
The unconfirmed and to-be-negotiated DSN schedule information for the
timeframe relevant to the HERSCHEL launch is below:
2009/07/21 D46 0055-0740
2009/07/21 D27 1540-2345
2009/07/22 D45 0005-0405
2009/07/22 D65 0720-0945
2009/07/22 D27 UL 1810-2130
2009/07/22 D15 DL 1830-2230
SOHO is hence expected to be in contact and not in record during the
HERSCHEL launch. No backup downlink antenna has been requested, since
a) SOHO's on-board system will autonomously enable recording (with a
delay of approximately 30 s) in case of loss of uplink and
b) HERSCHEL's baseline MDI request does not include high-rate.
EIT 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.
MDI may need to do monthly calibrations, a leg alignment, a tuning load
and a jitter test on July 20 and 22 (between the end of continuous
contact and the beginning of the keyhole). None of these activities
impact any other instrument commanding EXCEPT the tuning load which is
done via background queue and care will need to be taken to work around
other teams doing commanding loads.
See also section 2b (intercalibration activities) for proposed
SOHO/STEREO/TRACE/HERSCHEL cross-calibration.
* Jul 22 Total Solar eclipse (around 0236 UT), EIT/LASCO/UVCS,
POC: J. Pasachoff, A. Sterling, L. Damé, K. Schenk
POC: S. Habbal
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:
2009/07/21 D27 1540-2345
2009/07/22 D45 0005-0405
2009/07/22 D65 0720-0945
2009/07/22 D27 UL 1810-2130
2009/07/22 D15 DL 1830-2230
The week has not been negotiated and there is no guarantee that the
passes remain as is. If the schedule holds, SOHO is expected to be in
contact for most of the eclipse. At the request of J. Pasachoff the
possibilities of backup downlink DSN support(s) are being investigated,
but the likelihood of obtaining it is low. However, SOHO's on-board
system will autonomously enable recording (with a delay of approximately
30 s) in case of loss of uplink.
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 01:37 UT (which almost
coincides with the 01:36 UT 96-min cadence MDI magnetogram). 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). MDI 1-min cadence
magnetograms are also requested, but their availability will depend on
the VC2 availability. Since the eclipse tehnically occurs during the
first day of the 26-m keyhole, the VC2 availability will not be confirmed
until the keyhole plan is finalized in early July).
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.
UVCS will be supporting.
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/SUMER/MDI/TRACE, TBC
POC: Jonathan Cirtain (TBC)
The baseline launch time is 19:09:50 UT. The observations begin 100 s
after launch and will run for 318 s. Launch can slip from tens of minutes
to hours on the 28th. The backup time on Jul 29 is 19:09:45 UT.
Tentative DSN schedule for the SUMI launch dates and the following date
is as follows:
2009/07/28 1630-2055 D24 (34 m)
2009/07/29 0640-1040 D65 (34 m)
2009/07/29 1845-2245 D27/D15 (34 m/70 m)
2009/07/30 0315-0715 D46/D43 (26 m/70 m)
The week has not been negotiated and there is no guarantee that the
passes remain as is. If the schedule holds, SOHO is expected to be in
contact for the SUMI launch. No backup downlink antenna has been
requested.
High cadence MDI data sould greatly enhance the science return from
SUMI. It would also provide context for co-alignment with Hinode-SOT and
thus all of Hinode. 96 minute cadence MDI will significantly inhibit such
a comparison. High-cadence (1 min) MDI magnetograms are hence requested.
The nominal launch date is the last day before and the backup date is
hence the first day of the 34 m keyhole. The timing will very likely
restrict all, but especially MDI and SUMER supports. In the keyhole the
magnetogram cadence can be even less than 96 min and some magnetograms
may not be retrievable at all. SUMER supports will very likely be
possible only during contacts.
MDI will support with high resolution magnetograms if VC2 (high-rate)
will be available at the time of the SUMI flight. Since the SUMI flight
occurs well within the keyhole, the VC2 availability will not be
confirmed until the keyhole plan is finalized in early July). Provision
of VC2 during the SUMI flight (or, as high cadence as feasible) will be
attempted as part of the keyhole plan.
TRACE has been asked to support this rocket launch.
* Sep 23-Oct 10 Coordinated campaign with THEMIS,
CDS/EIT/MDI/Hinode-EIS/Hinode-SOT (TBC),
POC: Brigitte Schmieder
Coordinated observations between SOHO instruments during observations at
the THEMIS vector magnetograph are proposed. JOP 157 is the proposed
observing programs, and an updated description can be found at 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.
CDS will support.
* Sep 27-Oct 25 JOP 224 Solar Tomography with Minimal Solar Rotation,
LASCO/STEREO-SECCHI/MLSO-MK4,
POC: Russ Hewett
Proposed STEREO-SOHO co-observations. A unique configuration of the three
spacecraft is utilized and dictates the timing, but details and timing
remain TBC. The optimal configuration occurs on 11 Oct. Draft
description can be found at
http://sohowww.nascom.nasa.gov/soc/JOPs/jop224.pdf.
* 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
* Oct 26 (TBD) MDI science roll
A 360-degree roll with multiple stops and observations is being planned
and Oct 26 seems to be a good candidate date. The timing remains TBD,
however. DSN 70-m support will be needed. The duration of the maneuver is
TBD, but is expected to be of the order of 6-12 h. The Earth-SOHO
distance, DSN availability, the onset of the November keyhole and the
proposed JOP 224 are among the timing constraints.
Information on a similar earlier maneuver can be found at
http://sohowww.nascom.nasa.gov/soc/timeline_roll2001 and
http://sohowww.nascom.nasa.gov/soc/timeline_roll2001.detailed. The
details (such as number of stops and dwell times) will most likely be
different this time.
Other instruments are invited to take advantage of this maneuver.
CDS will use the multiple stops during the roll to verify the instrument
point spread function.
* 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 25 ICAL01 (#7113), CDS/EIT/STEREO/Hinode-EIS(TBD)/Hinode-SOT(TBD)
Timing is 12 UT.
* 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. For timing and
details of the HERSCHEL launch see section 2a above.
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)
* Dec 14-18 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.
A 360-degree roll with multiple stops and observations is being planned
--- see October entries of section 2a above.
Tentatively planning a jitter test July 20, 21 or 22 and then one in
October as well. Will coordinate that around the 360 degree roll and the
Themis campaign Sept 23 - Oct 10.
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 Jun 22-24,
2009.
SUMER:
See section 2a for details.
SUMER has plans for another campaign after SDO commissioning. SUMER team
needs to finish investigating the status of the detector and the azimuth
drive (expected to be done within a few days) before definitive campaign
dates can be given.
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. Jul 24 Aug 21 Sep 25 Oct 30 Nov 20 Dec 18 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
