Page 1 PROGRESS REPORT THE SOLAR-A SOFT X-RAY TELESCOPE (SXT) PROGRAM (CONTRACT NAS8-37334) (for the month of July, 1992) OVERVIEW The SOLAR-A Mission is a program of the Institute of Space and Astronautical Science (ISAS), the Japanese agency for scientific space activity. The SOLAR-A satellite was launched on August 30, 1991 from Kagoshima Space Center (KSC) in Japan, and renamed Yohkoh. The purpose of this mission is to study high energy phenomena in solar flares. Under an international cooperative agreement, Lockheed, under NASA contract, is providing a scientific investigation using the Soft X-ray Telescope (SXT), one of the primary experiments of the mission. The SXT was developed by Lockheed in cooperation with the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan, and the Institute for Astronomy of the University of Tokyo. MAJOR ACTIVITIES IN THE MONTH << Solar Activity and Observation Planning >> Yohkoh operations for SXT and the spacecraft as whole have gone smoothly for the past month. The solar activity continues to be diminished as observed in SXT full-Sun images. Typically there are only one or two bright regions observed at any time. In the last couple of weeks in July only a few C flares have been observed by Yohkoh. On 30 July a large prominence was observed to lift off the north-east limb by H-alpha telescopes at Mitaka. An arcade of loops was observed in the SXT images on the 31st near the same location. The X-ray images are typical of a region which has been restructured by a filament eruption or disappearance. More SXT images may become available when the DSN data has been reformatted for this time period. Unfortunately, our DSN coverage has been reduced by about a factor 4 to 5 from what we normally expect because of the Space Shuttle operations. Special coordinated observations with the VLA as a part of the Max 91/Flares 22 program were conducted on different days over the last three weeks of July. This campaign will resume later in August on three different occasions. This campaign is emphasizing flare observations. The Lockheed Tunable Filter has been observing from the Swedish Observatory in La Palma (1 May - 3 July) and more recently from the German Vacuum Tower in Tenerife. On 3 July a flare was well observed by both the SXT and the Tunable Filter. This data set may very well represent the best joint X-ray/visible observations of a flare every obtained. The analysis of this data is currently underway. The Tunable Filter follows the same region as the SXT for a portion of each observing day. These observations are expected to continue from Tenerife until some time in September. Page 2 << Data Analysis Software >> Dr. Jim McTiernan of Berkeley and Mr. Mons Morrison of LPARL succeeded in modifying the FORTRAN HXT image synthesis software to work on the workstations using IDL. The image synthesis takes somewhat longer on the workstations than the synthesis on the mainframe computer at ISAS, however the ease of selecting the data to be processed and the analysis of the resulting images are significantly easier on the workstation. This software is in the early phase of development and will go through several modifications in the next months. The NEC program which returns the processed spacecraft attitude information is currently being evaluated. The SXT team is comparing the NEC Attitude Determination System (ADS) results with the sun location as determined by SXT full disk optical images. The preliminary results are encouraging but the ADS program uses something like a Coleman filter on the pointing information so the ADS results will probably not be useful for high frequency oscillations which have been observed in flare mode. Synoptic Maps - A preliminary version of an SXT synoptic map generating program has been completed, and three maps have been generated from December, January, and June data. The program uses SXT full disk desaturated (SFD) image files. Currently only about half of the SFD files are available at Lockheed. As more are generated and/or shipped from Japan we will create synoptic maps for the eleven solar rotations so far observed by SXT. Access software will allow construction of synoptic maps centered on an arbitrary Carrington longitude. Heliographic Grid - A program to overlay heliographic grids on full and partial frame SXT data has been written. Currently it uses HXA data to determine disk center. However, now that NEC processed pointing data is available, that will be used as soon as the zero point calibration of that data is completed. A routine for display of true color (24 bit) images on the Peritek is now available. This should give added flexibility for the recording of multiple data sets and other more sophisticated graphics displays. Page 3 << Instrument Operations and Health >> There was a single event upset (SEU) within the recovery module of the SXTE-U software. The portion of code that cannot be automatically fixed is quite small, and the possibility of corruption in that portion is equally unlikely. A manual recovery was performed during the KSC real-time passes. Apart from this short interruption, data from SXT has been nearly continuous for the past month. << Data Flow >> There have been no problems with the processing and data distribution to the co-investigator institutions. The processing is staying current with data being received and also re-processing older weeks. The LPARL high school students have made copies of all available Yohkoh data tapes for all participating institutions, including the NSSDC. They are now awaiting the next shipment of tapes from Japan. << Problems >> The aspect telescope transmission continues to degrade. The current level is 15% of original. The cause is still not completely understood. Recent data being processed to calculate the gain of the camera system have show some ambiguous results. Detailed investigation of the results and further testing is being performed to better understand the calibration of the camera system. The Peritek graphics interface board at LMSC, which had failed in June, has finally been repaired and re-installed. We will now continue with the systematic recording of all de-saturated full disk images on to the Panasonic optical disk. This will provide a key rapid access image archive for research. In addition, the recording of partial frame flare and active region sequences of interest will be carried out as scientists make requests. << Personnel Travel >> The SXT staffing at ISAS for July was: FREELAND 15-JUL-92 31-JUL-92 * 17 (total of 17 days) HUDSON 1-JUL-92 * 5-JUL-92 5 13-JUL-92 31-JUL-92 * 19 (total of 24 days) LEMEN 1-JUL-92 * 17-JUL-92 17 28-JUL-92 31-JUL-92 * 4 (total of 21 days) LINFORD 1-JUL-92 * 10-JUL-92 10 (total of 10 days) MORRISON 15-JUL-92 19-JUL-92 5 (total of 5 days) NITTA 1-JUL-92 * 23-JUL-92 23 (total of 23 days) MARTENS 1-JUL-92 * 3-JUL-92 3 20-JUL-92 31-JUL-92 * 12 (total of 15 days) Page 4 The planned SXT staffing at ISAS for August is: FREELAND 1-AUG-92 * 10-AUG-92 10 20-AUG-92 31-AUG-92 * 12 (total of 22 days) HUDSON 1-AUG-92 * 20-AUG-92 20 (total of 20 days) LEMEN 1-AUG-92 * 31-AUG-92 * 31 (total of 31 days) NITTA 7-AUG-92 31-AUG-92 * 25 (total of 25 days) MARTENS 1-AUG-92 * 31-AUG-92 * 31 (total of 31 days) << Plans for August 1992 >> *. Continue software development and data analysis *. Get SOON images and catalog system on-line *. Get GOES digital 3 second data on-line *. Evaluate the ADS (Attitude Determination System) data Respectfully submitted, Mons D. Morrison Frank Friedlaender Page 5 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- UNIVERSITY OF HAWAII ACTIVITY REPORT (DR. R. CANFIELD) No input required for this month -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA AT BERKELEY No input required for this month -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- STANFORD UNIVERSITY (DR. P. STURROCK) No input required for this month -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- SOLAR PHYSICS RESEARCH CORPORATION (KAREN L. HARVEY) No input required for this month Page 6 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- NASA REPORT DOCUMENTATION PAGE (IN LIEU OF NASA FORM 1626) --------------------|--------------------------|-------------------------------- 1. REPORT NO. | 2. GOVERNMENT | 3. RECIPIENT'S DR-01 | ACCESSION NO. | CATALOG NO. --------------------|--------------------------|-------------------------------- 4. TITLE AND SUBTITLE | 5. REPORT DATE Monthly progress report - for the month of | August 10, 1992 July 1992 |-------------------------------- | 6. PERFORMING ORGANIZATION | CODE: O/91-30 -----------------------------------------------|-------------------------------- 7. AUTHOR(S) | 8. PERFORMING ORGANIZA- M. D. Morrison | TION REPORT NO: F. M. Friedlaender | |-------------------------------- -----------------------------------------------|10. WORK UNIT NO. 9. PERFORMING ORGANIZATION NAME AND ADDRESS | Lockheed Palo Alto Research Labs B/252 |-------------------------------- Solar & Astrophysics Laboratory O/91-30 |11. CONTRACT OR GRANT NO. 3251 Hanover Street, Palo Alto Ca. 94304 | NAS8 - 37334 -----------------------------------------------|-------------------------------- 12. SPONSORING AGENCY NAME AND ADDRESS |13. TYPE OF REPORT AND Marshall Space Flight Center (Explorer Program)| PERIOD COVERED Huntsville Alabama 35812 | Progress report for the month | of Jan, 1992 |-------------------------------- |14. SPONSORING AGENCY | CODE MSFC / AP32 -----------------------------------------------|-------------------------------- 15. SUPPLEMENTARY NOTES -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 16. ABSTRACT The SOLAR-A Mission is a program of the Institute of Space and Astronautical Science (ISAS), the Japanese agency for scientific space activity. The SOLAR-A satellite was launched on August 30, 1991 to study high energy phenomena in solar flares. As an international cooperative agreement, Lockheed, under NASA contract, is providing a scientific investigation and has prepared the Soft X-ray Telescope (SXT), one of the two primary experiments of the mission. --------------------------------------|----------------------------------------- 17. KEY WORDS (SUGGESTED BY | 18. DISTRIBUTION STATEMENT AUTHOR(S)) Solar-A, X-ray, CCD, | Space Science, Solar Physics ------------------------|-------------|----------|-----------------|------------ 19. SECURITY CLASSIF. | 20. SECURITY CLASSIF. | 21. NO OF PAGES |22. PRICE (OF THIS REPORT) | (OF THIS PAGE) | | None | None | 7 | ------------------------|------------------------|-----------------|------------ For sale by: Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, D.C. 20402-0001 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~