SOHO SPWG Minutes



SPWG FINAL MINUTES Friday 21 November 2003

1. Boundary conditions


* SOHO is at the nominal roll position until December 30.

* The next manoeuvre is planned for December 30. It will include a 180
  degree roll, station keeping (SK) and momentum management (MM). Fuel
  estimate for station keeping is 0.0705 kg of fuel. The following
  manoeuvre will be during the spring keyhole (March 15 - April 7).

* Keyhole estimates are being fine-tuned based on experiences gained
  during the past two keyholes. Changes in duration of 1 to 2 days are
  possible.

  The scheduling windows for the next 2 keyhole periods are given
  below. For estimated keyhole dates through 2006 follow this link


* Dec 23        High Rate on 26m stations ends, TBC
* Dec 26        High Rate on 34m stations ends, TBC
* Jan 5, 2004   High Rate on 34m stations starts, TBC
* Jan 8, 2004   High Rate on 26m stations starts, TBC

* Mar 15,2004   High Rate on 26m stations ends, TBC
* Mar 19,2004   High Rate on 34m stations ends, TBC
* Apr 4, 2004   High Rate on 34m stations starts, TBC
* Apr 8, 2004   High Rate on 26m stations starts, TBC

  The winter keyhole DSN schedule can be found at
  http://soho.nascom.nasa.gov/soc/keyhole.dec03

  We are attempting to get off-line support from the ESA ground
  station New Norcia (western Australia); data would be recorded and
  shipped on a delayed basis. No commanding, obviously, and a
  proof-of-concept is yet to be demonstrated. New Norcia is primarily
  dedicated to Mars mission support (as are the large DSN stations),
  so additional time will be limited. We expect Medium Rate only on
  this station.

  Unless a Major Flare Watch is in progress, TRACE will be doing full
  disk mosaics if/when EIT is not able to do synoptic sets due to
  keyhole operations. 

* MDI continuous contacts

  Jan 28-Feb 2 MDI Continuous Contact

  Mar 3-8      MDI Continuous Contact, TBC

* Submodes: Submode 6 for the foreseeable future, except the following
  periods:

  Nov 14-Dec 4 MEDOC and Ulysses Quadrature Observations

  NOTE: Changed to end on Dec 4 instead of Dec 5 due to risk to EIT
  CalRoc program.

  6 week campaign after April keyhole.

* EIT Bakeout/CalRock/Shutterless/Other:

* Dec  5        EIT Calibration Rocket, ~19 UT, TBC
* Dec  9        EIT Shutterless Run #13 Segment 1, 16-18:40 UT
* Dec 14        EIT Shutterless Run #13 Segment 2, 11-13:40 UT
* Dec 18        EIT Shutterless Run #13 Backup Day, 17-19:40 UT
* Dec 26-Jan  5 EIT Bakeout
* Feb 18, 25    EIT Shutterless Run #14

NOTE: All shutterless and bakeout dates are obviously TBD with keyhole
operations. Presumably, bakeouts will be scheduled preferentially during
periods with poor DSN coverage.

TRACE will support the shutterless runs.

* 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 less contact time than
  we are used to. No data loss is expected (outside keyhole times),
  but some days will have awkward commanding times (no Goldstone
  pass).

* TRACE is now in eclipse season. Eclipse season ends some time in
  February.  During eclipse season, TRACE will only load plans on
  Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays.

* Venus Transit: We have asked for DSN coverage for 5 hours either side
  of the projected closest approach of Venus (June 8, 2004, 13:30 UT). 
  Status is yet TBD. This will be a coronal transit only seen from SOHO,
  and we will likely be in record during the most relevant time period,
  (subject to approval from MDI).

2. Priorities for the coming month & more


a) Joint observing plans and campaigns

* Nov 17-30 	MEDOC12

  See current weekly/daily minutes, SOHO and MEDOC calendars for details.


* Nov 24-Dec 7  Ulysses Quadrature Observations, 0-10 UT,
                  SUMER/UVCS/CDS/Ulysses/TRACE , 
                  POC: Giannina Poletto (poletto@arcetri.astro.it),
                       Luca Teriaca (teriaca@linmpi.mpg.de)

  UVCS will observe this period every day except Nov 25 due to Del Sco
  star observations.

  SUMER will close doors on December 4 (changed due to EIT CalRoc).

  MDI will provide support for this with FD synoptic Mags (though not
  asked for).

  CDS support is scheduled for 0-9 UT.


* Nov 24-Dec 1  High-time-resolution Magnetograph Test, MDI/NSO,
                  15:30-17:30 UT, POC: Craig DeForest

  MDI will support with 
  High Resolution Dopplergrams, Magnetograms and
  Filtergrams as DSN permits.


* Dec 5         EIT Calibration Rocket , EIT/CalRoc/TRACE, /CDS(TBC),
                  ~19 UT, POC: Jeff Newmark

* Dec 5         CELIAS SEM Calibration Rocket, CELIAS SEM/CalRoc/CDS(TBC),
                  ~19:30 UT, POC: Don McMullin

  We will ask to keep the SSR in record until about 20 UT (station 46
  begins at 18:20 UT after a 1.5 hour gap). In addition, we have DSS34 
  as a backup station for 18:20-20:20 UT, to ensure e.g. a sector wheel
  hang can be detected & corrected. The best time for TRACE to
  participate is 19:05 to 19:25 UT, eclipse starts 19:30 UT (TRACE
  will support unless flight happens during hard eclipse).

  CDS would like to have more information on the CalRoc, and may join.

  The program for the two calibration rockets is similar to Intercal 13
  (updated version expected).


Continuing campaigns:

*               JOP159 CMEs 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 (#7010)

  Campaign #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: November 11 (Week 46)

* Week 50 Intercal 1, CDS/EIT

Up to weekly planners to finalise.

c) Individual instrument plans

MDI:

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

MDI will work on getting down magnetograms in the 5k data stream
during the winter and spring keyholes. They have not yet tested
getting magetograms down in the 5k stream and are discussing plans on
how and when to do it.  More details to come.

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

  The following are listed because of NRT requirements or as candidates
  for collaboration (with e.g. CDS):

* Dec 8         Observations of the He I Focusing Cone
* Dec 9-11      Streamer Study
* Dec 12-13     Theta Oph Star Observations
* Dec 14-17     Streamer Study
* Dec 18-25     Observations of the North Coronal Hole
* Dec 26-31     Observations of Coronal Hole
* Jan 1-8       Observations of Coronal Holes

During the December keyhole period, UVCS plans to observe as much time
as allowed by DSN contacts and recordings.

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

CDS will consider joining UVCS studies above as appropriate.


LASCO/EIT:

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


Expect EIT bakeout 2003 December 26 - 2004 January 5, assuming enough
contact on the latter date to run post-bake cals


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.

TRACE is in hard eclipse since November 3, and will likely not agree to
participate in JOPs during eclipse season other than those already agreed to.

During eclipse season, TRACE will only load plans on Mondays,
Wednesdays, and Fridays.


3. AOB


* Next SPWG: Friday December 19, right after weekly meeting in the EOF.


* 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.

* The OBT correction procedure prior to OBT distribution (after a Warm
  Startup) has been formally approved.

* The new ECS software for updates of the Time Correlation File is
  operational and has already handled some updates correctly.

* 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

Week 49 - Dec 01-Dec 07: DSS-27 every day but Tuesday and Wednesday.
                         Gaps during commanding hours every day but
                         Monday and Sunday.  Longest contacts are on
                         DSS-27 and on Thursday and Friday DSS-46 has
                         nice long contacts after 21 and 18:20 UT 
                         respectively.


Week 50 - Dec 08-Dec 14: Gaps every day during commanding times except on
                         Thursday.  DSS-27 on Monday, Wednesday, Thursday
                         and Sunday.  Thursday has continuous contact after
                         06:30 UT.


Week 51 - Dec 15-Dec 21: DSS-27 every day but Tuesday and Friday.  
                         Continuous contact all day Monday after 06:40 UT,
                         gaps during commanding hours on all other days.


Week 52 - Dec 22-Dec 28: May lose HR on 26m stations Tuesday, and on 34m
                         stations Friday.  Long gap Monday morning, multiple
                         gaps on other days.  Mostly station pairs (one 
                         uplink and one downlink) after early Wednesday.
                         See Keyhole Schedule for more details.