SXT Status Report 17-30 June 2001 (Weeks 25-26) D. McKenzie SOLAR ACTIVITY The solar eclipse on 21-Jun was a highlight: SXT saw two partial eclipse events. Activity was moderate during this reporting period; the X-ray background stayed near the GOES C level until 27-Jun, when it began to decline. Activity peaked on June 22-23, with five M- and one X-flare within 9 hours. At the end of the reporting period, the solar disk sports a coronal hole that seems to extend to low latitudes, as well as an active region at fairly high latitude (South 48). OBSERVING CAMPAIGNS For the 21-Jun solar eclipse, we ran PFI-dominant for high-cadence partial-Sun images pointed at the "4th contact" point on the Sun's west limb. We got terrific (albeit noisy) images of the moon's stillstand and reversal. See the Nugget (URL below) for an excerpt from the movie. We also acquired some targeted two-filter PFIs in support of an eclipse campaign undertaken by Meisei University. Please see our webpages for details about campaigns past and future: http://isass1.solar.isas.ac.jp/sxt_co/sxt_catalog.html http://isass1.solar.isas.ac.jp/sxt_co/sxt_future.html SXT INSTRUMENT STATUS AND CALIBRATION ACTIVITIES No new problems to report. Pointing has been steady and true during this reporting period, after some variations associated with the temporary eclipse of our guide star Canopus in early June. TELEMETRY DOWNLINKS Week Wallops Santiago Goldstone Canberra Madrid NASA Japan 25 29 0 1 8 1 39 32 26 24 3 1 2 3 33 29 Kagoshima should average 6*5+2 = 32 and the NASA target is 7*6 = 42. SXT OBSERVING SEQUENCE TABLES ============================================================== JST Day UT Date & Time Pass Table ID Monday AM 17-JUN-01 23:17 2 010617 P2 ARS1 STD Tuesday AM 18-JUN-01 21:36 1 010618 P1 ARS1 DRK Tuesday AM 19-JUN-01 02:40 4 010618 P4 ARS1 STD Wednesday AM 19-JUN-01 21:36 1 010619 P1 ARS1 DIF Wednesday AM 20-JUN-01 02:40 4 010619 P4 ARS1 STD Thursday AM 21-JUN-01 02:40 4 010620 P4 ARS0 ECLIPSE Friday AM 21-Jun-01 19:55 1 010621 P1 ARS1 STD Saturday AM 22-Jun-01 23:16 3 010622 P3 ARS1 STD Monday AM 24-JUN-01 21:34 3 010624 P3 ARS1 STD * Tuesday AM 25-JUN-01 18:12 1 010625 P1 ARS1 DRK * Tuesday AM 25-JUN-01 23:15 4 010625 P4 ARS1 STD * Wednesday AM 26-JUN-01 18:11 1 010626 P1 ARS1 DIF * Wednesday AM 26-JUN-01 23:15 4 010626 P4 ARS1 STD * Thursday AM 27-JUN-01 21:33 3 010627 P3 ARS1 STD * Friday AM 28-Jun-01 18:10 2 010628 P2 ARS1 STD * Saturday AM 29-Jun-01 18:09 2 010629 P2 ARS1 STD * -------------------------------------------------------------- Data reformatting is complete through May, 2001. OBSERVING SEQUENCES: We adjusted the FFI table to increase the frequency of Al.1 movie pairs. We now acquire an equal number of Al.1 and AlMg movie pairs, and we are no longer running in the "rapid" FFI configuration. The HESSI-support flare table was tested, and some refinements were made. Afterwards, we shelved this table until HESSI is online; and we resumed flare observations designed to look for waves, ejecta, and inflows. SCIENCE NUGGETS: June 22: "How Smooth is the Sun?" introduces the newest eclipse movie, and describes our hope to utilize the data to learn about the roughness of the solar limb. June 29: "Where are Coronal Loops Heated?" presents a discussion about the heating of cool coronal loops: is the heat deposited at the footpoints, or uniformly along the length of the loops? The full list of recent nuggets is kept on http://isass1.solar.isas.ac.jp/sxt_co/index.html and the current week's nugget also normally resides on http://isass1.solar.isas.ac.jp/sxt_co/SXTweekly.html For the complete nugget archive, see one of the following sites. http://isass1.solar.isas.ac.jp/sxt_co/index.html SEMINARS: Hugh Hudson presented a seminar on June 21, entitled "Hard X-rays from Far Behind the Limb". On April 18, 2001, Nobeyama and HXT both tracked moving sources with speeds near 950 km/s. Are they the same source? PERSONNEL: Hugh Hudson arrived, and then left again. Janos Bartus departed for a trip to the USA. TOHBANS (spacecraft operators) for week 25: SSOC Tohbans : T. Watanabe, T. Sakao KSC Tohbans : A. Asai, S. Eto SXT_CO: D. McKenzie SXT_SW: J. Bartus TOHBANS (spacecraft operators) for week 26: SSOC Tohbans : S. Kubo, N. Shinohara KSC Tohbans : S. Eto, Y. Mizuno SXT_CO: D. McKenzie SXT_SW: J. Bartus