SXT Status Report August 6 - August 26, 2001 (Weeks 32-34) A. Takeda SOLAR ACTIVITY Solar activity was moderate to low for the first two weeks, with only two M-class flares reported. Since last week, however, the activity raised significantly due to the appearance of NOAA 9591, which produced an X5.3 flare on 25th Aug. OBSERVING CAMPAIGNS In week 34, we supported the 'Quiet Sun Campaign' lead by BBOS and CDS. We tried 1-step deeper exposures in FFIs on the 20th and high cadence PFIs in ARS0 pointing on the 21st. The support was until the AR 9591 returned and showed strong flare activity. 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 with the S/C. In contrast, there has been a trouble with the operation supporting system at Kagoshima Space Center during these three weeks. As a result, we were forced to cancel most SXT table uploads during the week 33, since it was during the summer holidays in Japan. The problem was finally fixed during the weekend of the week 34. We carried out a special calibration to test the straylight pattern on one of the filters. The special tables were uploaded on 21st and 22nd and the images obtained are being reviewed by L. Acton. SXT normal pointing was adjusted on 20th Aug. TELEMETRY DOWNLINKS Week Wallops Santiago Goldstone Canberra Madrid NASA Japan 32 26 0 0 1 1 28 32 33 24 0 2 0 12 38 32 34 31 0 2 0 5 38 36 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 5-Aug-01 23:09 2 010805 P2 ARS1 STD* Tuesday AM 6-Aug-01 21:28 1 010806 P1 ARS1 DARK* Tuesday AM 7-Aug-01 02:32 4 010806 P4 ARS1 STD* Wednesday AM 7-Aug-01 21:27 1 010807 P1 ARS1 DIFF* Wednesday AM 8-Aug-01 02:31 4 010807 P4 ARS1 STD* Thursday AM 8-Aug-01 23:07 2 010808 P2 ARS1 STD* Saturday AM 17-Aug-01 16:12 1 010817 P1 ARS1 DARK* Saturday AM 17-Aug-01 21:16 4 010817 P4 ARS1 STD* Monday AM 19-Aug-01 17:50 2 010819 P2 ARS1 STD* Tuesday PM 21-Aug-01 14:26 1 010821 P1 ARS1 SL-TEST Wednesday AM 21-Aug-01 17:48 3 010821 P3 ARS0 QS* Wednesday AM 21-Aug-01 19:30 4 010821 P4 ARS1 STD* Wednesday PM 22-Aug-01 14:24 1 010822 P1 ARS1 DIFF Thursday AM 22-Aug-01 19:29 4 010822 P4 ARS1 STD+SL* Thursday PM 23-Aug-01 12:43 1 010823 P1 ARS1 DARK Friday AM 23-Aug-01 16:04 3 010823 P3 ARS1 STD* Saturday AM 24-Aug-01 16:03 3 010824 P3 ARS1 STD* Saturday PM 25-Aug-01 14:20 2 010825 P2 ARS1 STD -------------------------------------------------------------- Data reformatting is complete through June 23, week 25 of 2001. OBSERVING SEQUENCES: In the late week 34, we prepared a special flare table for the coordinated observation with the hard X-ray spectrometor launched by balloon by a Japanese team (NAO/ISAS) in early week 35. We uploaded the following sequence since the 24th for testing. Res Filter AEC --- ------ --- Full AlMg optimum, no saturation Half AlMg deep & saturated Full Be optimum, no saturation Full Al12 optimum, no saturation Considering the high activity of the target region currently promising, we will add the Q-res sequence below in the third of the above entries. Qrtr AlMg deep & saturated SCIENCE NUGGETS: August 10: "A vague giant" looks back at the activity produced by the NOAA region 9544, during its disk passage on 10-23 July, 2001. There were no large enhancements in the GOES flux, but the region is thought to be a source of some eruptive events observed by SoHO/LASCO. August 17: "Yohkoh observations of X-class flares", reviews the properties of X-class flares as observed by Yohkoh since 1996. August 24: "Reverberations of April 7, 1997", reconsider the famous sigmoid flare and an associated radio event observed in 1997. 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: No seminars for these weeks. PERSONNEL: No change. TOHBANS (spacecraft operators) for week 32: SSOC Tohbans : S. Inoue & S. Watari KSC Tohbans : T. Miyagoshi & T. Morimoto SXT_CO: A. Takeda SXT_SW: J. Bartus TOHBANS (spacecraft operators) for week 33 SSOC Tohbans : M. Sawa & Y. Katsukawa KSC Tohbans : T. Morimoto & G. Kuwabara SXT_CO: A. Takeda SXT_SW: J. Bartus TOHBANS (spacecraft operators) for week 34 SSOC Tohbans : H. Takasaki & N. Narukage KSC Tohbans : G. Kuwabara & S. Masuda SXT_CO: A. Takeda SXT_SW: J. Bartus