SOHO SPWG Minutes



SPWG FINAL MINUTES
Friday 29 October 2004

1. Boundary conditions


- SOHO is right side up, until the the next manoeuvre, tentatively
  scheduled for 21 December.

- We have been alerted about a possible Leonids threat on November 19.
  More details should be available next week, but it does not seem
  likely that any precautions will be recommended.

- Using the intermittent (SSR) recording patch, we expect to be able
  to get continuous data for GOLF, VIRGO, and MDI for the winter
  keyhole. The DSN times for the keyhole can be found at:
  http://sohowww.nascom.nasa.gov/soc/keyhole.dec04

- The scheduling windows for the next 2 keyhole periods are given
  below.  Note: Some tentative changes (expanding the 26m keyholes)
  have been done based on historical performance and taking the
  varying SOHO-Earth distance into account. For estimated keyhole
  dates through 2007 see http://soho.nascom.nasa.gov/soc/keyholes.txt

* Mar 02        High Rate on 26m stations ends, TBC
* Mar 10        High Rate on 34m stations ends, TBC
* Mar 24        High Rate on 34m stations resumes, TBC
* Apr 01        High Rate on 26m stations resumes, TBC

* Jun 05        High Rate on 26m stations ends, TBC
* Jun 10        High Rate on 34m stations ends, TBC
* Jun 20        High Rate on 34m stations resumes, TBC
* Jun 25        High Rate on 26m stations resumes, TBC

- Long-term DSN outlook: Although substantial losses of normal VC0/1
  are expected during 2005/2006 keyholes, we have good hope that GOLF,
  VIRGO and MDI will be continuous thanks to the recording patch.

- TRACE is in eclipse season - estimated to end around February 4.
  The November 4-17 time period has been reserved for engineering
  purposes. Eclipse operations will be simple as usual and no JOPS
  other than those already agreed to will be supported, unless unusual
  circumstances occur.

- 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

* Nov 3-7       MDI Continuous Contact (default: full disk mags & Doppler)
* Dec 2-5       MDI Continuous Contact (reserved for helioseismology only)

  Final decision on modes will be made closer to the scheduled time.

  As usual, 96 minute magnetograms will be available.

- ALL KNOWN submode dependent activities & submode schedule:

* TOO           JOP175 Extended Filaments at the Limb (see sect. 2a)
* Nov 8-21      MEDOC #14 Submode 5
* Nov 22-30     SUMER mini-campaign
* Nov 30        EIT Shutterless, 17:00-19:40 UT, TRACE has conflict w/JOP173

  Submodes: Submode 6 except for:
  Friday November 5, 17 UT - Thursday November 30, 14 UT

  SUMER activities will start on Sunday November 7.

- EIT Bakeout/Other

* During winter keyhole, times TBD

- Commanding outlook: See AOB section.

2. Priorities for the coming month & more


a) Joint observing plans and campaigns

Continuing campaigns:

*               JOP136 Default RHESSI Collaborations (#6850), POC:Stein Haugan
*               Default CDS Co-observations with TRACE (#6950)
*               JOP153/MMOP003 Future Major Flare Watch (#8000)
*               JOP159 CMEs in Lyman-alpha (#6870), SWAN/LASCO/EIT/UVCS,
                  POC: Chris St Cyr, Eric Quemerais
* Feb-Sep 2004  Quiescent AR Loop Diagnostics (#7019), CDS/TRACE/EIT/SUMER,
                  POC: Helen Mason (h.e.mason@damtp.cam.ac.uk),
                  Local POC: CDS Planner
*               JOP175 Extended Filaments at the Limb, EIT/TRACE/LASCO/UVCS,
                  POC: Chris St Cyr (Chris.StCyr@nasa.gov)
*               Network-Internetwork Oscillations (#7033), EIT/TRACE,
                  POC: Scott McIntosh

  Campaign #6850 is for "individual instrument studies" selecting an AR
  target [partially] influenced by the Max Millennium target selection
  to maximise chances of serendipitous co-observations.

  The running of the Quiescent AR Loops is left to the decision of the
  CDS planner.

  EIT supports all with half/full-res 195 Å CME watch in submode 5/6,
  except JOP175 getting half/full-res 304 Å CME watch in submode 5/6,
  and Network-Internetwork Oscillations which is TBD by Scott McIntosh.
  As long as the S/C is in submode 6, all EIT CME watch will be in full
  res.

  During the November 8-14 week of MEDOC, EIT will be concentrating on
  operations in 304 Å (half res), so will not be able to support most
  of the above, except perhaps JOP 175.

  An extension of the Quiescent AR Loop Diagnostics campaign is being
  discussed by the CDS team.

* Oct 18-Nov 1  Dynamics of the Lower Chromosphere, MDI/TRACE/La Palma, 
                  POC: Mats Carlsson (mats.carlsson@astro.uio.no)

  Ongoing, some coordination also with Blinker Study below.

* Oct 25-29     Blinker Study, CDS/MDI/Sac Peak, 15-19 & 20-22 UT,
                  POC: Hardi Peter (peter@kis.uni-freiburg.de) and
                  Alexandra Tritschler (ali@kis.uni-freiburg.de)

  MDI is currently supporting Blinkers with a High Res. 3 variable
  extract campaign.  We are also supporting the Lower Chromospheric
  study with La Palma and TRACE with the same observing campaign.

* Oct 26-29     Chromospheric Magnetic Fields Below XBPs (#7093), TRACE/VTT, 
                  POC: Yukio Katsukawa (yukio.katsukawa@nao.ac.jp)

  TRACE is supporting w/171 images every 30 minutes.

* Nov 1-6       Streamer Study (#7094), UVCS/CDS, POC: Michael Uzzo

* Nov 3-7       MDI Continuous Contact

  Probably Full Disk Magnetograms and Dopplergrams.

* Nov 8-21      MEDOC #14, Submode 5 from 5 Nov 17 UT - 30 Nov 14 UT

* Nov 8-14      JOP158 The Fast Solar Wind From 1.04 to 4 Solar Radii, 
                  UVCS/SUMER/CDS, POC: Alan Gabriel & Lucia Abbo

* Nov 8-14      JOP178 Filament and its Environment, 
                  MDI/CDS/EIT/THEMIS/GBOs, POC: Guillaume Molodij

* Nov 8-21      JOP124 Oscillations in Filaments and Prominences, 
                  SUMER/CDS/EIT,
                  POC: Guillaume Pouget & Karine Bocchialini

* Nov 8-21      JOP177 Energy Input in Prominences, SUMER/EIT, 
                  POC: Zadig Mouradian

* Nov 8-21      Polar Coronal Holes, SUMER, POC: Laurent Dolla

* Nov 8-21      Scattered Light Observations, SUMER, POC: Philippe Lemaire

* Nov 15-21     JOP104 Doppler Shifts in X-ray Jets, 
                  SUMER/CDS/EIT/UVCS/RHESSI, 
                  POC: Nour-Eddine Raouafi & Davina Marckiewicz-Innes

  EIT can support JOP's 124, 178 with full-field, half-res 304 Å CME
  watch, November 18 - 14.  Support for JOP 177, as in the June run,
  will be limited to times when two-wavelength subfields (171 and 304
  Å) can be run during NRT. Due to the risk associated with such
  operations, we probably cannot support every day; actual number of
  days of support TBD. During week of November 15 - 21, CME watch will
  be in 195 Å, which can be considered support for JOP 104.

  TRACE has received no request for JOP178 or 104, and will not support
  since they are in eclipse season.

  MDI has not received a request for JOP178 and support is not
  guaranteed. However, it's likely that support is possible for some,
  if not the entire time.

* Nov 22-30     SUMER mini-campaign

  See note under Section 2c for details.

* Nov 23-Dec 2  JOP173 3D Structure and Dynamics of Sunspots, 07:00-22:00 UT,
                  CDS/TRACE/MDI/VTT/THEMIS/La Palma SST/DOT/DST/MST,
                  POC: Karin Muglach (muglach@nrl.navy.mil)

  Note: A new JOP description including CDS details has been submitted.

  MDI confirms support of JOP173.  We will provide 1 minute, High
  Resolution Magnetograms, Dopplergrams and Filtergrams if the JOP173
  target is within the HR FOV and will provide 1 minute Full Disk
  Magnetograms and Dopplergrams if the target is not within the MDI
  HR FOV. Support may be cut short by the MDI CC starting December 2.

* Nov 27-Dec 10 Ulysses Quadrature, UVCS/SUMER/Ulysses, POC: Giannina Poletto

  SUMER will support until door closing on November 30.

* Nov 30        EIT Shutterless, 17:00-19:40 UT

  EIT thanks SUMER and CDS for supporting the submode change on this
  date.

  CDS will join if JOP173 is paused for the duration of the shutterless
  (or, presumably, if support for JOP173 can be counted as support for
  the shutterless - TBC)

  TRACE will support when not in eclipse.
  
  MDI will likely be in the HRFOV during the shutterless, so if they
  would like HR MDI observations, we can support them.  We can also
  provide 96 min. synoptic Mags.

* Dec 2-5       MDI Continuous Contact

  We are currently developing a slightly new observing sequence for FD
  and high resolution Dopplergrams. We are reserving this particular
  CC for Helioseismology exclusively. The one day of overlap with
  JOP173 will likely cut JOP173's observations short.

* Dec 12-18     Emergence and Evolution of AFS in Solar ARs, MDI/THEMIS,
                  POC: Francesca Zuccarello (fzu@ct.astro.it) &
                  Paolo Romano (prom@ct.astro.it)

  MDI will support with some High Rate observations and 96 minute mags
  (during the keyhole mags will only be taken when telemetry schedule
  allows). The details will need to be hashed out a little bit.

* Dec 13        High Rate on 26m stations ends, TBC
* Dec 16        High Rate on 34m stations ends, TBC
* Dec 21        S/C Maneuver
* Dec 26        High Rate on 34m stations resumes, TBC
* Dec 29        High Rate on 26m stations resumes, TBC


b) Intercalibration activities

  Last Intercal 1: October 14 (Week 42)

* Week 45/48    ICAL01, CDS/EIT, POC: EIT and CDS planners

  NOTE: ICAL should be done before MEDOC starts or after the SUMER
  mini-campaign has ended, unless SUMER wants to participate. SUMER
  participated in ICAL01 last May.

c) Individual instrument plans

MDI:

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

  With the recording patch in place for the winter keyhole, and given
  that MDI can expect near-continuous medium-l data and some VC2
  during 70m contacts, MDI will likely take 3 magnetograms per day,
  one of which may be downlinked in VC1 and two in VC2 (TBC).

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

UVCS:

  For weekly plans, see the SOHO calendar and the UVCS planning page:
  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):

* Oct 31-Nov 7  UVCS Streamer Study
* Nov 17-22     UVCS Streamer Study
* Nov 23-24     UVCS Star Observations
* Nov 25-26     UVCS Observations of North Polar Coronal Hole


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

  Will observe streamers w/UVCS Oct 31 - Nov 7. Michael Uzzo to
  coordinate.

LASCO/EIT:

   MEDOC JOP support, shutterless as above; otherwise, when in 195 Å,
   can support JOP 159.

SUMER:

  See note about MEDOC campaign in section 1 and the MEDOC page
  http://medoc-ias.u-psud.fr/operations/cmp14/calendar.html
  
  Plans for the mini-campaign:

  Enrico Landi, active region diagnostic
  Luca Teriaca, SOHO-Ulysses quadrature
  Nour-Eddine Raoufi & Davina Innnes; UVCS - SUMER CME campaign
  Uri Feldman & Enrico Landi; He abundance study

TRACE:

- TRACE is in eclipse season - estimated to end around February 4.
  The November 4-17 time period has been reserved for engineering
  purposes. Eclipse operations will be simple as usual and no JOPS
  other than those already agreed to will be supported, unless unusual
  circumstances occur.

  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 19 November, right after weekly meeting in the EOF.

  No TRACE representative available November 18-21.

The rest are FYI items:

* 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.

* 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.

* Commanding outlook:

  For the month of November contact is decent with several afternoon gaps
  each week. There are continuous contact periods from November 3-7 and 
  from December 2-5.