H. Nakajima, H. Hudson (SSOC) K. Shibasaki, K. Suga (KSC) SSOC Tohban report for Week 46 (15 November - 21 November 1993) 1. General No special operations were carried out. SXT began running a special table aimed at obtaining scattering wing data during a flare. The SSOC tohbans this week set a record in combined age, viz. 106 years total. 2. Solar Activity Solar activity during the last week faded away, although over the weekend a new active region appear on the NE limb, with some rather spectacular loops. The biggest flare was about C2 this week through the Saturday. 3. Standard Operations 3.1 SXT Table Uploads 931115 T1 P2 ARS1 STD NO 931115 ARS1 STD LONGS 931116 T1 P4 A1 DKCAL SCAT 931117 T1 P2 DEEP CORONA 931117 T2 P4 ARS2 STD SCAT 931120 T1 P4 ARS2 STD SCAT 931122 T2 P3 ARS2 STD During this time the SXT team was attempting to get special flare-mode observations with a 1x8 OR in flare mode, with fixed exposures, to try to get scattered light from hot sources. This probably was not successful because there were not enough flares, although we came close on 20-Nov. The original table labeled ARS2 was confusing for the tohbans, because the SXT Chief Observer forgot to disable "Morning Patrol". Thus in spite of ARS2 being set, the PFI moved from region to region. This is a common mistake with SXT tables, so if the tohbans notice it, they should be sure to alert the Chief Observer (as happened properly this time). 3.2 STT Timer Set The STT timer was set on 16 November and was scheduled to have been done again on 22 November because of the holiday schedule. 3.3 Weekly Offset Pointing The 8' deep corona offset pointing was performed on Wednesday. 4. Special Operations None. 5. DSN Items 5.1 Joe Espinueva There was e-mail from Joe Espinueva announcing his sudden resignation. The tohbans regret this, because he's been so energetic and helpful. 5.2 Test Data We had fax communication with DSN regarding test files sent with their new system, also e-mail communications. The second test file had the following problems: * "Earth Receive Time" was not included * The bits in the minor frame section were complements (1 <=> 0) To get the information necessary, the tohbans consulted with Kato_san. We feel that future communications for matters such as this, which are not standard operations matters, should be handled directly by the responsible people. We're afraid that we don't understand the technical details well enough to help and it's a waste of our time. 5.3 Passes at low elevations We had a bad experience with a Madrid pass that was at an elevation less than ten degrees and should not have been scheduled for a dump. The SSOC tohbans mistakenly included this pass, and the problem was only spotted by the KSC tohbans at the last minute. Why do we have this problem? In principle, 8 independent checks of this pass had been made by different tohbans at different times... we needed all 10 to get it right! Perhaps the OP_FIRST_GUESS rule on DSN dump elevation angles should be increased? Right now it's set at 0 degrees, 0 minutes duration. Note that the tohbans bear responsibility for this item, the pass selection is not screened by DSN. 6. Errors SXT, 18-Nov-93 pass#1: bit map error, recovered BCS, high voltage was off for a couple of days. It was recovered on 16-Nov in pass #2 (931116-0103). The latest version of the BCS recovery plan is Ver. 6 which is mentioned in the manuals and also the initial plan for the recovery operation. However, the recovery procedure in MS at KSC is still Ver. 5. We had to postpone the operation for one day to check this confusion and actually used Ver. 5 on 16-Nov. Version 6 should be sent to KSC. BCS, error on pass 5, 21-Nov. To be recovered on pass #2 22-Nov. 7. Tohban Headaches 7.1 Mainframe headaches Mainframe #2 went down and had to be restarted on Saturday morning. The Geotail group had set an "off" time in the middle of Yohkoh operations. This caused a long delay and a lot of running around, because these tohbans did not know how to restart this computer. This is a bad situation, very inefficient and potentially dangerous because of our reliance on this system. This problem needs to be solved by ISAS. In the meanwhile, since operations are now drifting into typical mainframe "off" hours, the tohbans should check the end time setting for Mainframe #2 and be sure that it is still up at least one hour after the last KSC pass time. 7.2 IDL headaches The operations computers, flare1 and flare11, are running an obsolete version of IDL. It is important that these be upgraded, because new or recently-serviced Yohkoh software may not run properly under the old version. 7.3 OP_FIRST_GUESS headaches On two occasions, OP_FIRST_GUESS got the wrong antenna for the first KSC pass. This has been reported to Lemen_san and he will figure it out. There were also detailed timing problems as the DAY OG began to occur near AOS time. This symptom may be related to the OP_FIRST_GUESS problem just referred to, and until it is straightened out the tohbans should be especially careful in these conditions. 7.4 OPOGEDT headaches These tohbans weren't able to figure out how to save more than one edited upload OP. 7.5 English-language manual headaches It's really great. Thanks are due to Sterling_san. We liked it so much that Lemen-san read it carefully and found places where it could be improved yet more! So this is more of a Sterling headache than a tohban headache now... 7.6 KSC pfiql headache In some passes, the KSC tohbans could not view pfi images by ".run pfiql" either for realtime and play back data. ".run ffiql" worked 7.7 Week-numbering headache There is a discrepancy of week number between KSC (which follows AOSLOSGD) and SSOC which follows DSN). Ex: Nov.15 (Week 46 for SSOC and Week 47 for KSC). Tohbans should note and be wary of this. [suggestion: change AOSLOSGD?] 7.8 Maximum elevation headache The three independent looks at this (AOSLOS printouts, weekly visible diagrams, OP_FIRST_GUESS) all may give different maximum antenna elevations. They are all probably correct in terms of elevation, but incorrect in terms of time - each calculation uses a different form of the AOSLOS orbit program, run on a coarse mesh. The times are arbitrary, so the detailed elevations are arbitrary too. Do the engineers at KSC rely upon our judgement about what is a "zenith pass", or do they make their minds up by themselves? We could probably make operations more efficient by doing a specific calculation with greater accuracy around the time of the zenith pass. This could be incorporated into OP_FIRST_GUESS and we recommend it if there is no independent reliable estimate made at KSC. Every time we have an non-necessary zenith operation, we lose two SXT full-frame images, I think, so it costs typically four minutes of data loss. 8. Hikitsugi 8.1 week 47 Tohbans: SSOC: H. Hara, T. Sakurai KSC: K. Shibasaki, S. Watari 8.2 STT timer The next setting should be done prior to Sunday because we had to do it the second time on Monday (22-Nov), but then re-done on the following Tuesday (week 47) to get back to the proper schedule. See the SSOC Tohban report for week 45. 8.3 Contact times The KSC contact times are drifting into the morning, following the inexorable laws of celestial mechanics. The SSOC tohbans are therefore requested to begin sending the OP and pass sheets for confirmation a day earlier than they have been, two days before the upload. 8.4 Power shutdown at KSC The power supply at KSC Power supply at KSC will be shut down for a quarter of an hour between 9:00 and 12:00 on 4-Dec. (Sat.) for maintenance. Please be prepared. 8.5 e-mail to KSC It is better for the KSC Tohbans to receive e-mail (reformat report, gbo_mail, SSOC weekly tohban report, etc.) not in flare1 but in flare5. 8.6 Flow chart of realtime operations It would be very helpful for the high bit tohban to have flow charts for the various errors found during contact operation. For SXT, it already exists and is very helpful. It would be better to have similar ones for BCS, DP, SXT table checking, OP/OG checking, and so on. Also for AOS with FL/ME, ......... which need extra operations before starting the scheduled operations. 8.7 Year-end schedule A tentative schedule for Yohkoh year-end operations has been proposed: last KSC operation ~12:00 JST 28-Dec-93; first KSC operation ~09:00 4-Jan-94.