SSOC Tohban Report for Week 20 (12 May - 18 May 1997) SSOC : Koide, Sterling KSC : Morita, Okubo 0. Meeting Attendance: Shimizu, Watanabe, Shinohara, Sawa, Sterling, Savy 1. Solar Activity: Flares and a CME occurred on 12-May. There was also increased activity during the middle of the week. 2. Standard Operation: 2.1 SXT Table Uploads: ------------------------------------------------------------ Pass ID Pass # Table ID ------------------------------------------------------------ Monday 970513-0102 4 970513 P4 ARS1 DKCAL Tuesday 970513-1444 3 970513 P3 ARS1 STD+DIFF Wednesday 970514-1445 3 970514 P3 ARS1 STD+LONG Friday 970516-1239 2 970516 P2 ARS0 XBP+LONG 970516 P4 ARS1 STD+LONG Saturday 970517-1136 1 970517 P1 UVFLOOD1 970517-1240 2 970518 P2 DARKCAL 970517-1446 4 970518 P4 ARS1 STD ------------------------------------------------------------ 2.2 STT timer setting: The STT timer was set during pass 2 (970512-1443) on 13-May-97. The next timer setting is planned for 20-May-97 (Tuesday morning). 2.3 Offpointing for Terminators None. 3. Errors and Problems 3.1 BCS Errors and Problems: There were three BCS SEUs during the week. One found during pass 970511-0104 and recovered during pass 70511-0208, one found during pass 970513-1237 and recovered during pass 970513-1444, and another found and recovered in pass 970515-0103. According to Okubo san, next week Yohkoh's apogee will be in the SAA. This would explain the rash of BCS SEUs. 3.2 SXT Errors and Problems: None. 3.3 Transmission Problems from Last Week. Due to the email problems experienced last week, we have been checking to see if mail is reaching JPL. Seko san reports that some of her requests to JPL have been acted on, indicating that mail is getting through. But a note from Tim Burnes to Watanabe san mentions that JPL had some mail problems at some point, but we are not sure when this was. [At the 19 May Monday meeting Shimizu san reports that he has modified the mail setup to use a different gateway. That hopefully will take care of the mail problems.] Because of the problems with transmissions to KSC during week 19 (SXT weekend table 970510 P4 ARS1 STD transmission failure), we verified the OP transmission each day on the third floor printer. Each of these transfers was successful. 3.4 FAXes from SSOC to KSC. During the week there were several times when FAXes sent from B-toh to KSC failed. Resending the FAX usually worked. It is not clear yet whether this is due to a lot of traffic with the KSC FAX, or if there is some problem with the FAX machine(s) here and/or there. We recommend that the tohbans be careful to watch that their FAX transmissions get through. If the situation continues in subsequent weeks, further action (e.g., repair of the appropriate FAX machine, if needed) should be taken. 3.5 Bug in Command Sheet Generation Code. There is a "bug" in the routine run by op_first_guess which generates the pass sheets. It shows up when, for example, pass 1 goes from night to day, and all other passes are in day. In that case, the time for the DAY OG during Pass 1 is printed out on the pass sheet for each pass, rather than only for the first pass as it should be. We contacted Jim Lemen about this problem, who said he will fix the problem when he gets a chance. (Tohbans should report this sort of bug at the Monday meeting.) 3.6 Failed File Transfer from DSN. On one day we found using tail_dsn that the size of the 7dayss.w20 file was zero, and that the solass.w20 file was absent. Without the latter, none of the DSN passes are picked up by op_first_guess. It seems as if this is the same problem found in a previous week by Hudson san, in which the automatic FTP code to DSN was suspected of having timed out. We solved the problem by using the old RASM method to transfer the file from DSN. This method restores the solass.w20 file, and so op_first_guess works properly. The "cleaned up" (i.e., with all but the relevant Solar-A tracking pass data removed) 7dayss.w20 file is not restored by this method, but it is not essential for operations. We notified Jim Lemen about this problem. 3.7 BDR Optimization and Mode Changes During SAA. With the BDR optimization there are times when the QT-H command is inserted relatively early in an SAA, resulting in a relatively long period of H-mode SAA observation. An example occurred on 16-May-97 at about 13:33 UT. It seems as if it would have been better for the QT-H command to have been added closer to the time of the end of the SAA. KSC asked us about this issue for that particular day. But since the rules governing the mode changes are rather involved, we decided to have them use the OP as it is. This should not be a problem since (a) the extra time with H-mode SAA is not that great in terms of H-mode SAA observations for the entire day, (b) op_first_guess itself leaves out the mode changes when the number of OG slots used in the OP exceeds 128, (c) we used to run Yohkoh for the first two years without any SAA mode changes anyway, (b) playing around with the mode changes when we don't understand the underlying algorithm does not seem like a good idea. This situation can be looked at more closely later. 3.8 False Flares Hudson san pointed out false flare on 15 May, and noted that there also had been one on 6 May at about 17:08. The most recent, at least, is likely due to the SAA (see 3.1). Hugh writes: ``I suggest that the easiest and most conclusive way to investigate is to wait until Monday morning and ask Watanabe-san then if the SXS rates look normal during the most recent occurrence. If so it's probably just a seasonal change in SAA structure, not something to worry about.'' 4. DSN Communications: 4.1 DSN Final schedule for W20: Three passes were canceled on short notice by DSN (station 17) on 14-May, leaving a large gap between downloads. We telephoned JPL, but they were not able to tell us specifically why the passes had been canceled (but maybe due to the shuttle??). Also, there was not enough time to add two Wallops passes during the gap that had been canceled in the strawman for W20. 4.2 DSN Final schedule for W21: We canceled 2 passes for W21. 4.3 DSN Preliminary Schedule for W22: We had no Week 22 Preliminary Schedule pass cancelations. 4.4 DSN Strawman schedule for W23: We canceled 31 passes. 4.5 Data Transmission from DSN: (/home/flare1/yohkoh/dsn_corrupt/97_20) 116 80 1640 not received Requested 06 May. Closed / correct data 117 76 1841 not received Requested 06 May. no response Requested 13 May. no response Requested 16 May. 126 46 0914 corrupted tape Requested 14 May. 129 76 1415 corrupted tape Requested 14 May. 5. YOHKOH/ASUKA/AKEBONO/HARUKA Pass Conflicts at KSC: 5.1 Canceled passes for W20, W21 Week 20: Six passes were canceled for Akebono Week 21: Eight passes were canceled, three for Haruka, five for Akebono 5.2 Future Schedule: There was a long-term planning meeting with Nagase-sensei and the representatives of all four satellites on May 15. Yohkoh will have a two-day holiday on June 29 and 30 due to maintenance at KSC. 6. Special Operations: XBP campaign on May 17. SXT UVflood on 17 May 7. Holiday Schedule: The next holiday will be Sunday, May 25. 8. Hikitsugi Items: 8.1 Tohbans for W21 SSOC : Shinohara, Watanabe (19, 20, 22 May), Shimizu (21 May), ?? (23, 24 May) KSC : Okubo, Hashizume 8.2 STT Timer setting Due tomorrow morning (already included in command sheets). 8.3 OP and Command Sheet Status The command sheets and OP for Tuesday morning (19-May UT) have been sent to KSC and checked. The OP has also been transfered to KSC. It is still necessary to check tail_dsn however. 8.3 New Manual and Checksheet Versions A new version of the English Tohban Manual is now out. Future tohbans (beginning with this week's) should write corrections and updates directly in the manual, and inform A. Sterling of the changes. Jim Lemen has made a new version of the checksheet to correspond to the new manual. Changes to the checksheet should be marked on the checksheet and reported to A. Sterling. 8.4 Sirius Data Nothing to report. 8.5 Suggestion to DSN selection rule: mail from JPL I understand that you access RASM and choose the passes that are made available to you. We would like you to use the Wallops (WFF) passes as much as possible. In other words, if a pass from one of the DSN sites (Goldstone, Madrid or Canberra) can be substituted by a WFF pass, please use the WFF pass and delete the DSN pass, instead of vise versa. Please understand we are not asking you to give up any coverage but if the same coverage can be accomplished by using WFF instead of the DSN, we would like you to do so. (Albert Chang) 9. Action Items 9.1 Week-20-A/I-1 /Watanabe/ status: Open False Flares: Watanabe san to see if the SXS rates look normal during the false flares of 15 May and on 6 May at about 17:08. If so, then the false flares are ``probably due to a seasonal change in SAA structure, not something to worry about,'' according to Hudson san. 9.2 Week-16-A/I-1 /Watanabe/ status: Closed Arrange for the modification of the Gateway software to accept the data from the new Wallops DSS-80 antenna. Watanabe-san asked Prof. Yamada for modification. 9.3 Week-18-A/I-1 /kanji/ status: Closed What about OP file transfer confirmation? At about 21:30 Friday evening, Kii-san of HARUKA reported informally that the OP file transmission had failed. i) SSOC tohbans have been told that they do not need to check the console printer for file transmission any longer. In fact, Kii-san reported that the printer was down anyway. ii) Without firm knowledge that the OP for the next day has been properly transmitted, Yohkoh may go into night mode. iii) MUSES-B may be adding a new factor to this situation. The OP transmission from Friday worked OK, but on Saturday the ASUKA tohban reported that the SXT file transfer for Monday had failed. The problem may or may not be found and discovered before the upload time (09:05 JST). This is pass #2, at which time the OP would stop also. Hara_san converted the OP into raw hex listing for KSC to enter in case of a continued problem, but the problem was resolved on Sunday and the SSOC tohbans were able to complete the file transfers. [19-May: This item is left over from two weeks ago. We have had no problems with the OP transfer during week 20. We have also been checking the transfer on the third floor printer. But the printer was stopped at one time, making us suspect that our transfer had not worked! Therefore, if one is checking the printer, be sure that it is working correctly before panicking.] [19 May, after Monday Meeting: According to Watanabe san, the file transfer was due to an unusual situation with the minicomputer at KSC, and is not expected to occur regularly. Also, there are now adequate backup procedures in place at KSC to recover in the case of an OP file transfer failure. Therefore it is not advised to change the OP checking procedure at SSOC.]