Page 1 PROGRESS REPORT THE SOLAR-A SOFT X-RAY TELESCOPE (SXT) PROGRAM (CONTRACT NAS8-00119) (for October 2001) OVERVIEW The YOHKOH Mission is a program of the Japanese Institute of Space and Astronautical Science (ISAS) with collaboration by the U. S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration and the U. K. Science and Engineering Research Council. The YOHKOH satellite was launched on 30 August 1991 from Kagoshima Space Center (KSC) in Japan. The purpose of this mission is to study high energy phenomena in solar flares and the Sun's corona. Under an international cooperative agreement, Lockheed Martin, 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 at the Lockheed Martin Solar and Astrophysics Laboratory in cooperation with the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan, and the Institute for Astronomy of the University of Tokyo. MAJOR PROGRAMMATIC ACTIVITIES IN THE MONTH The most significant activity this month was the planning for the level of support that can be provided for the program in view of the reduced funding. Proposal preparations and Co-Investigator strategies are being evaluated based on a change to a primarily data gathering phase in the program. SOLAR ACTIVITY In early October, Solar activity decreased from moderate to low. A long-duration M9 flare occurred at 01/0515 UTC in the vicinity of Region 9628 (S22W91). This flare produced a full halo CME. An optically uncorrelated M2 flare occurred at 06/0525UTC. This event also produced a CME off of the sun's west limb. There continued to be numerous M-class flares without X-class flares as well as numerous active regions (as many as 17 numbered NOAA regions on 5 October). Thus the M/X ratio is 61 for September-October, dropping to 42 if one goes back to the next earlier X-class flare of August 25. In mid-October activity increased with several intense flares, including two X-class flares, in AR 9658, AR 9661 and AR 9671. Although AR 9661 was reported to have decayed considerably following the two X-class flares, it seems to be responsible for an M3 flare on 21 October. The X-class flares were associated with halo CMEs and a major geomagnetic storm (starting 21-Oct 16 UT). All in all October produced four X-class flares (two each from AR 9661 and AR 9672). The first one was well observed by Yohkoh, and is the topic of the latest science nugget. The X-class flares were associated Page 2 with halo CMEs, and the geomagnetic effects seemed to depend on whether the halo CME was full or partial. All the flares occurred near central meridian. CAMPAIGNS Yohkoh participated in three coordinated observations. The first was with the Very Large Array, led by Bernhard Kliem, to observe X-ray jets (JOP 104). The second was JOP 131/149, run by Brigitte Schmieder, to observe the onset of flares/CMEs. We had better observations for the second part of this campaign because more of their observing times were within the Yohkoh visible orbits. The last campaign we supported was with Sac Peak to observe transition region moss (Tom Berger). SCIENCE Canfield started a project with Sachary Blehm, David McKenzie, and Bob Leamon on the quantitative measure of the size and shear of sigmoids in SXT SFD images. The goal of this project is to obtain a quantitative measure of the non-potentiality of the corona of active regions based exclusively on X-ray imaging. Hudson worked on white-light flares, in support of Sarah Matthews' Y10 paper. This phenomenon really remains one of the toughest-to-explain aspects of flare physics. Recall that the initial work with the best few SXT white-light observations more or less confirmed ideas based on close timing relationships between WL and hard X-rays. But there is an additional slower component; presumably this is even harder to explain because the excitation may be less non-thermal somehow. Accordingly he estimated the coronal gas pressure for the 28 events on the list of probable WLF detections (list originally compiled by Lidia Van Driel-Gesztelyi), and for a similar list of other events. As expected, the WLF's have higher coronal pressures (in extreme cases, such as 1991 Dec. 3, exceeding 1000 cgs - a memorable day), and the time variation of coronal gas pressure has a slower, later development than the hard X-rays. But what mechanism is at work? Martens and Gburek made progress with the in-orbit determination of the SXT PSF. They will end up with a new parametrized Moffat-fit for SXT for the year 2000, and will compare that to the prelaunch measurements at White Sands. The code will also produce cleaned up images, and can be applied to images from any orbiting solar telescope. Nitta continued to compare TRACE 1600 A and Yohkoh data for flares taken during the Max Millennium # 6 campaign (March 2000). The Yohkoh/TRACE data show good temporal and spatial correlations between hard X-ray and UV emissions. The UV emission is not limited to the footpoints of the flare loop in which nonthermal electrons are supposed to travel, but can also signify heating as a result of mass motions. Do the areas with UV emission but without HXR emission correspond to any magnetic structures, such as separatrices, as has been shown by the French group for H-alpha ribbons? Page 3 PUBLICATIONS Submitted: Aschwanden, M. J. , "Particle Acceleration and Kinematics in Solar Flares. A Synthesis of Recent Observations and Theoretical Concepts", invited review for SPACE SCIENCE REVIEWS Accepted: Cliver, E. W., and Hudson, H. S., "CMEs: How do the puzzle pieces fit together?" S-RAMP proceedings, to be published in Journal of Atmospheric and Solar-Terrestrial Physics. Published: De Pontieu, B., Martens, P. C. H., and Hudson, H. S., "Chromospheric Damping of Alfvén Waves," ApJ 558, 859 (2001). PUBLIC USE OF SXT IMAGES We are continuing to make Yohkoh/SXT images available for a variety of uses. Efforts continue to make selected images available on the LMSAL SXT WWW homepage (http://www.lmsal.com/SXT/). We receive requests for the Yohkoh posters (#2 and #3) by way of the form on the SXT homepage. Currently we receive requests via our homepage at the rate of 2 or 3 per day. The WEB access statistics in October were 123375 accesses and 8,679 Mbytes transferred for the SXT website and 242484 accesses and 4,903 Mbytes transferred for the YPOP website. A mini version of the YPOP Solar Week was run this month with some 15 schools in Colorado. The kids were asking over 100 questions a day of our scientists and we had about 1500 students participating from elementary through high school. YOHKOH OPERATIONS AND HEALTH Yohkoh and the SXT continue to function very well. SXT experienced a normal level of Single Event Upset (SEU) events during the month: SXT Bit Map Error 03-Oct-01 Pass 3: 011003-1341 Recovered in the same pass. WM RST Error 10-Oct-01 Pass 1: 011009-1030 Recovered in Pass 5 SYNC Error 24-Oct-01 Pass 1: 011024-0515 Recovered in Pass 2 Page 4 DATA FLOW Month Full Frame Images Observing Region Images Received Lost Received Lost Loss % QT FL Tot Thru Aug-99 640271 233631 2571110 676356 3247466 1142743 25.91 Sep-99 5768 2011 21890 3434 25324 10846 29.99 Oct-99 5768 2308 22994 10487 33481 11517 25.59 Nov-99 7552 3425 20754 18772 39526 11974 23.25 Dec-99 7488 2791 22047 5354 27401 10663 28.01 Jan-00 5426 1736 19802 4040 23842 8958 27.31 Feb-00 6533 2052 21801 7017 28818 8982 23.76 Mar-00 6447 2007 22692 21914 44606 11192 20.06 Apr-00 6412 2100 31195 7214 38409 13438 25.92 May-00 6995 1556 28175 14961 43136 8967 17.21 Jun-00 7043 1722 24413 16369 40782 8690 17.57 Jul-00 6674 1920 23505 31739 55244 10235 15.63 Aug-00 9623 1996 20925 1197 22122 6577 22.92 Sep-00 8835 2240 22233 5764 27997 8307 22.88 Oct-00 6348 1524 23309 6629 29938 7916 20.91 Nov-00 6525 1639 20087 10318 30405 6972 18.65 Dec-00 6585 1918 20718 5422 26140 8071 23.59 Jan-01 5610 1231 20469 3161 23630 7317 23.64 Feb-01 6917 1497 25366 1144 26510 7871 22.89 Mar-01 6851 1272 26315 17139 43454 9470 17.89 Apr-01 5531 1804 15991 20001 35992 9216 20.39 May-01 7410 1758 21042 1767 22809 7152 23.87 Jun-01 7037 1024 24643 5760 30403 5075 14.30 Jul-01 7184 1805 19361 1340 20701 6358 23.50 Aug-01 6741 1443 25710 17252 42962 9100 17.48 Sep-01 4485 1149 16581 24919 41500 7277 14.92 Total 808059 279559 3133128 939470 4072598 1364884 25.10 Number of Full Frame Images Received: 808059 Number of Observing Region Images Received: 4072598 Total: 4880657 Approximate Number of Shutter Moves/CCD Readouts: 8315062 NOTES: * The loss of images is mainly due to BDR overwrites, but there are also occasional DSN dumps which are lost. * It is common to have observing regions which contain more than 64 lines, which requires multiple exposures to make a single observing region image. This is why the number of shutter moves is larger than the number of images received plus those lost. Page 5 ENGINEERING SUMMARY TABLE Month Avg Dark Level # of Dark Spikes CCD Warmings Front Optical (DN) (e/sec) Over 48 Over 64 High / # Support Trans Temp /Days Temp (%) Sep-99 60.04 1107.3 231585 49084 21.8 N/A Oct-99 59.66 1092.9 229735 45263 22.8 N/A Nov-99 59.90 1102.0 231288 47102 23.0 N/A Dec-99 60.55 1126.3 233523 53920 22.5 / 2 25.3 N/A Jan-00 60.27 1115.9 233820 50214 23.4 N/A Feb-00 60.93 1140.6 235079 56836 23.8 N/A Mar-00 60.72 1132.8 234174 54661 22.9 N/A Apr-00 61.10 1147.0 235252 58348 22.2 N/A May-00 61.00 1143.1 234569 57445 21.2 N/A Jun-00 61.19 1150.3 235622 58946 22.8 N/A Jul-00 61.96 1179.3 238114 66905 19.3 N/A Aug-00 61.27 1153.4 236108 59965 56.9 / 2 21.7 N/A Sep-00 61.08 1146.2 235644 58449 22.1 N/A Oct-00 61.44 1159.5 237142 61667 23.1 N/A Nov-00 60.99 1142.7 235849 57271 24.2 N/A Dec-00 61.59 1165.2 237454 63656 23.8 / 2 21.8 N/A Jan-01 61.64 1167.3 238962 62922 22.2 N/A Feb-01 61.84 1174.6 239218 65324 23.5 N/A Mar-01 61.89 1176.7 239128 65898 23.1 N/A Apr-01 61.92 1177.5 239784 66169 22.6 N/A May-01 62.25 1189.9 240631 69412 22.8 N/A Jun-01 62.17 1187.1 240572 68588 21.6 N/A Jul-01 62.75 1208.8 241519 74670 22.5 / 2 22.7 N/A Aug-01 62.77 1209.6 241443 75645 22.3 N/A Sep-01 62.51 1199.9 240909 72766 22.2 N/A NOTES: * The dark current calculations are using full half resolution 2.668 sec images not taken in during the SAA. The dark current rate assumes a "fat zero" of 30.5 DN and a gain of 100 e/DN. * The entrance filter failure of 13-Nov-92 eliminated the capability of taking optical images, so the optical transmission is not available after Nov-92. It also caused an increase in the dark current signal, however some of the increase shown here is an increase in the readout noise and is not a function of exposure duration. Page 6 PERSONNEL TRAVEL SXT Foreign Travel between 1-OCT-01 and 31-OCT-01 BARTUS 1-OCT-01 * 31-OCT-01 * 31 (total of 31 days) FLETCHER 1-OCT-01 * 5-OCT-01 5 (total of 5 days) HUDSON 1-OCT-01 * 15-OCT-01 15 (total of 15 days) NITTA 6-OCT-01 22-OCT-01 17 (total of 17 days) TAKEDA 6-OCT-01 31-OCT-01 * 26 (total of 26 days) ---------------------------------------------------------------- Grand Total of 94 days for 5 people NOTE: The "*" signifies travel that actually ends after 31-OCT-01 SXT Foreign Travel between 1-NOV-01 and 30-NOV-01 BARTUS 1-NOV-01 * 30-NOV-01 * 30 (total of 30 days) HUDSON 2-NOV-01 15-NOV-01 14 (total of 14 days) MCKENZIE 14-NOV-01 30-NOV-01 * 17 (total of 17 days) SATO 14-NOV-01 30-NOV-01 * 17 (total of 17 days) TAKEDA 1-NOV-01 * 30-NOV-01 * 30 (total of 30 days) ---------------------------------------------------------------- Grand Total of 108 days for 5 people NOTE: The "*" signifies travel that actually ends after 30-NOV-01 Respectfully submitted, Thomas R. Metcalf Frank Friedlaender Page 7 7 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 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 | 10 November 2001 October 2001 |------------------------------- | 6. PERFORMING ORG | CODE: O/L9-41 -----------------------------------------------|------------------------------- 7. AUTHOR(S) | 8. PERFORMING ORGANIZA- T. R. Metcalf | TION REPORT NO: F. M. Friedlaender | |------------------------------- -----------------------------------------------|10. WORK UNIT NO. 9. PERFORMING ORGANIZATION NAME AND ADDRESS | Lockheed Martin Missiles and Space |------------------------------- Advanced Technology Center, O/L9-41, B/252 |11. CONTRACT OR GRANT NO. 3251 Hanover Street, Palo Alto Ca. 94304 | NAS8 - 00119 -----------------------------------------------|------------------------------- 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 Contact: Larry Hill | of October 2001 |------------------------------- |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 | ------------------------|------------------------|-----------------|-----------