Page 1 PROGRESS REPORT THE SOLAR-A SOFT X-RAY TELESCOPE (SXT) PROGRAM (CONTRACT NAS8-00119) (for January 2002) 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 ten-year Yohkoh anniversary conference was held in Hawaii this month. It was well attended and again demonstrated the scientific contributions that this program has provided. Unfortunately the health of the spacecraft has not improved and everyone is now contemplating how to provide an extraordinary data base for future generations. SCIENCE Acton worked with Pevtsov, Fisher, et al., on spectral radiance at solar disk center for comparison to unsigned magnetic flux in the same area. As the original work was done with SFD images it is suspect for the faint corona. His code goes back to the SFR files, applies severe quality constraints, and derives filter-ratio temperatures to improve the reliability of the luminosity estimates. Canfield worked with MSU undergraduate Sachary Blehm to apply a code developed by Alex Pevtsov and Bob Leamon to measure of the size and shear angle 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. He worked with Nariaki Nitta to determine the magnetic field orientation at the footpoints of SXT loops in 16-Aug-99 preflare images. The purpose of this determination is to test a topological model of sigmoids and flux ropes. Hudson continued studies of coronal holes and further work on the April 18 event as a part of the AGU winter meeting and the Y10 meeting. The April 18 event has been confirmed to have an extraordinary electron distribution function, with the >20 keV electron number ranging from 0.2% to 20% of the background population, estimates from various correspondents including Mike Wheatland. Martens worked with Szymon Gburek to produce a code to apply Blind Iterative Deconvolution to SXT images. The last step was designing an apodization criterion, necessary to eliminate the high frequency contributions for which the photon noise (in Fourier space) is larger than the signal. This had the pleasant side effect of speeding up the calculations for one image from several days to a couple of minutes. The results were presented in a poster at Y10, will be published in the literature, and after testing the code will be made available through SolarSoft. Nitta Made a quick survey on X-class flares in this cycle. The most striking result is that despite their tendency not to be LDEs, the association with CMEs (41/46), and halo CMEs in particular (33/46), was very high. This is a huge difference from the same survey for a subset of M-class flares. He now feels that, in addition to LDEs (=filament eruption induced flares), there is a distinct class of CMEs that have to do with the flare energy release not coming from the ejection. PUBLICATIONS Papers Submitted: H. Hudson: "A rapidly moving hard X-ray source in a CME", submitted to the Yohkoh 10th anniversary proceedings volume. Preprint available at http://sprg.ssl.berkeley.edu/~hhudson/y10.pdf Aschwanden,M.J. and Parnell,C.E. 2002, ApJ, subm. 2002 Jan 29 URL1="http://www.lmsal.com/~aschwand/eprints/2002_paris.ps.gz" "Nanoflare statistics from first principles: fractal geometry and temperature synthesis" Papers accepted: Aschwanden,M.J. and Alexander,D. 2001, Solar Physics 204, 93-129 URL1="http://www.lmsal.com/~aschwand/eprints/2001_bastille.ps" URL2="http://www.lmsal.com/~aschwand/eprints/2001_bastille.html" "Flare Plasma Cooling from 30 MK down to 1 MK modeled from Yohkoh, GOES, and TRACE observations during the Bastille-Day Event (2000 July 14)" Yan,Y., Aschwanden,M.J., Wang,S.J, and Deng,Y.Y. 2001, Solar Physics 204, 29-43 URL1="http://www.lmsal.com/~aschwand/eprints/2002_yan.ps.gz" "Evolution of Magnetic Flux Rope in NOAA 9077 Active Region on 14 July 2000" Portier-Fozzani,F., Aschwanden,M.J., Demoulin,P., Neupert,W., and EIT Team 2001, Solar Physics 203, 289-308 URL1="http://www.lmsal.com/~aschwand/eprints/2002_portier.pdf.gz" "Measurement of coronal magnetic twist during loops emergence of NOAA 8069" 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 December were 109,764 accesses and 6,954 Mbytes transferred for the SXT website and 172,507 accesses and 4,099 Mbytes transferred for the YPOP website. YOHKOH OPERATIONS AND HEALTH Data ended December 14 as a direct result of the near-total solar eclipse of that day, which Yohkoh intercepted over the Pacific Ocean midway between Hawaii and the Galapagos. This resulted in a loss of control and an under-voltage condition. Yohkoh is rotating at about 1 RPM around its Y axis (solar EW direction of motion) and slowly precessing. Page 5 DATA FLOW Month Full Frame Images Observing Region Images Received Lost Received Lost Loss % QT FL Tot Thru Nov-99 659359 241375 2636748 709049 3345797 1177080 25.92 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 6051 1610 22439 32802 55241 11073 16.70 Oct-01 6047 1691 23828 21155 44983 9600 17.59 Nov-01 5785 1400 18318 18211 36529 6689 15.48 Dec-01 3106 707 11169 5868 17037 3473 16.93 Total 824563 283818 3192301 992587 4184888 1388442 24.91 Number of Full Frame Images Received: 824563 Number of Observing Region Images Received: 4184888 Total: 5009451 Approximate Number of Shutter Moves/CCD Readouts: 8518516 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 6 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 (%) 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 62.47 1198.4 240882 72344 22.4 N/A Oct-01 62.41 1195.9 241304 71418 23.2 N/A Nov-01 63.03 1219.4 243159 77269 22.0 N/A Dec-01 62.54 1200.7 242251 72217 24.0 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 7 PERSONNEL TRAVEL SXT Foreign Travel between 1-JAN-02 and 31-JAN-02 BARTUS 6-JAN-02 31-JAN-02 26 (total of 26 days) NITTA 4-JAN-02 21-JAN-02 18 (total of 18 days) SATO 1-JAN-02 * 6-JAN-02 6 (total of 6 days) TAKEDA 6-JAN-02 19-JAN-02 14 26-JAN-02 31-JAN-02 * 6 (total of 20 days) ---------------------------------------------------------------- Grand Total of 70 days for 4 people NOTE: The "*" signifies travel that actually ends after 31-JAN-02 SXT Foreign Travel between 1-FEB-02 and 28-FEB-02 TAKEDA 1-FEB-02 * 28-FEB-02 * 28 (total of 28 days) ---------------------------------------------------------------- Grand Total of 28 days for 1 people NOTE: The "*" signifies travel that actually ends after 28-FEB-02 Respectfully submitted, Thomas R. Metcalf Frank Friedlaender ================================================================= Montana State Univ Activity Report for December 2001-January 2002 ================================================================= (L. Acton) The reporting period was a momentous one for Yohkoh and the Yohkoh Teams. The events of 14 December 2001, fully reported by Takeo Kosugi at the Yohkoh Tenth Anniversary (Y10) meeting, appear to bring an end to the observing phase of our very successful mission for the study of High Energy processes in Solar Physics (HESP, the original acronym). The Y10 meeting was very well attended and the papers effectively reflected the remarkable advances in solar physics since the launch of Yohkoh in 1991. We look forward to the publication of the Y10 symposium volume which is being edited by Piet Martens of MSU and Dave Cauffman of LMSAL. We are happy to report over $23.5K of Y10 travel awards permitted many graduate students and young scientists from the U.S. and abroad to participate in the meeting. Because of the uniqueness of this time of change in the Yohkoh mission I will forgo the usual tabulation of MSU activities. Rather, I will append a memo which represents our first step, the enunciation of the Yohkoh Galileo Project, towards creating an enduring scientific legacy for Yohkoh. ----------------------------------------- To: Yohkoh Team, et al. From: L. Acton Date: 11 February 2002 Subj: The Yohkoh Galileo Project The solar scientific community owes a great debt of gratitude to Galileo Galilei (1564-1642) who left his sunspot records in such a state as to be useful for research centuries later. The Yohkoh Team bears an equivalent responsibility for the Yohkoh archive -- so I've dubbed our post-operations archival activity the Galileo Project. Our objective shall be to create an archive of data and documentation that will enable scientific use of Yohkoh observational results, without reliance upon a Yohkoh expert, for the centuries ahead. In what follows I will not discriminate amongst BCS, HXT, SXT and WBS although the archival issues for each experiment will be different in detail. In order that the Galileo Project be fully effective we must also coordinate closely with the Solar Data Analysis Center at GSFC, the Yohkoh Data Analysis Center at Mullard Space Science Laboratory, the ISAS and CRL archives in Japan, and with the developing Virtual Solar Observatory project. Here is my attempt at a task breakdown structure for the multi- dimensional Galileo Project. Analysis & Database Preparation SXT straylight-correction improvement SXT entrance-filter open-fraction calibration SXT scattering and point spread function algorithms Create SXT Science Composite (SSC) database(s) Create improved and complete SXT mission-long movie(s) Correct anomalies in the Yohkoh ATT database Update spectral model (Chianti?) used for SXT analysis HXT image database HXT TBD BCS TBD WBS TBD Create an improved user interface to the Yohkoh archive Data Products IDL/SolarSoft dependent Raw Processed (SSC, etc.) Supplementary data bases (FEM, SDC, ATT, etc.) IDL/SolarSoft independent Digital (i.e., online) CD, DVD, etc. Paper (HXT Image Catalogue, Yellow book, etc.) Software Products Clean up, pare down, and add to the Yohkoh SSW archive. Documentation/Calibration Products Electronic media Improved data index and user interface. Yohkoh Analysis Guide Calibration information (show_pix, SXT Cal Notes, etc.) SXT Chief Observers Handbook Paper media Yohkoh Analysis Guide Peer-reviewed publications (Post-mission version of pre-mission Solar Physics papers?) Education/Public Outreach Products Yohkoh home page(s) Yohkoh Public Outreach Project Nuggets Consensus must be reached and work swiftly undertaken. Perhaps the thorniest issue is to define and create the IDL/SolarSoft-independent data archive. We must prepare for the possibility that in the centuries ahead these software systems will not work. I am confident that NASA will support this effort for the next 1-2 years. I am also convinced that we will have to perform well and wisely to complete this task within funding and time constraints. The effort will fall short without participation by all of the Yohkoh experiment teams. With the informal assurance that NASA understands and supports the value of this work, our Japanese and UK partners have committed to attempt to obtain domestic funding necessary to do their part. I have promised NASA a costed proposal by the middle of March 2002. =========================================================================== Solar Physics Research Corp. Activity Report for December 2001-January 2002 =========================================================================== (Karen L. Harvey and Hugh S. Hudson) KAREN L. HARVEY: Activities for December 2001 and January 2002: (1) Continuing with a comparison of the coronal holes identified in NSO/KP He I 10830 rotation maps and with corresponding Yohkoh/SXT rotation maps to determine if the structures identified as coronal holes in He I 10830 all are associated with low emission areas. A program has been written to view coronal hole boundaries superimposed on the synoptic He I 10830 spectroheliograms, magnetograms, and SXT images to better follow coronal holes, their formation and evolution. Isolated coronal holes appear to form in a specific magnetic field configuration; we are examining whether this a sufficient and/or necessary condition. Plans for February and March: Continued analysis (1) of the association of coronal holes observed in He I 10830 spectroheliograms and the SXT full-frame and synoptic images; this includes isolated, non-polar coronal holes, as well as the transient coronal holes; of particular interest is the formation of coronal holes and of polar extensions; (1) with T. Forbes of the reconnection rate of magnetic fields during long-duration arcade events/He I 10830 2-ribbon flares and comparison of the transient coronal holes with X-ray/EUV dimmings; (3) return to a collaborative project with Keith Strong on the solar cycle variation of XBP started in 1995 for a paper presented the 1996 Bath meeting. HUGH S. HUDSON Activities for December 2001 and January 2002: The main efforts during these two months have involved coronal holes and further work on the April 18 event as a part of the AGU winter meeting and the Y10 meeting. The April 18 event (see preprint) has been confirmed to have an extraordinary electron distribution function, with the >20 keV electron number ranging from 0.2% to 20% of the background population, estimates from various correspondents including Mike Wheatland. We are onto something really different here. Several talks (see http://isass1.solar.isas.ac.jp/~hudson/talks): "Hard X-rays Associated with CMEs" (AGU, December 12, 2001) "Uses of solar hard X-rays" (ITP Santa Barbara, January 18, 2002) "Uses of solar hard X-rays" (ad hoc planning meeting, January 21, 2002) "Coronal hard X-rays associated with CMEs" (Yohkoh 10th Anniversary, January 24, 2002) "The Yohkoh experience" (3rd Solar-B science meeting, January 25, 2002) "Dark energy in the solar corona" (LMSAL Palo Alto, January 31, 2002) The last item, although not delivered at the time of writing, seems very interesting to me. Two general approaches dominate our understanding of coronal MHD equilibrium: solar-wind and carpet people like potential fields, whereas flare and CME people require energy storage. Will we converge? Plans for February and March: Again the highest priority is the completion of the global wave paper (May 6, 1998 event). Other observations now being analyzed mainly by the Kyoto group (Narukage, Shibata) are making use of the ideas and calculations in this paper, which has circulated widely over the last couple of years prior to its publication. I intend to visit MSSL in March for a day or two, to wrap up the Yohkoh white-light flares with Sarah Mathews, Lidia Van Driel-Gesztelyi, and N. V. Nitta. In the meanwhile, the Metcalf poster at the AGU on the TRACE white-light flare observation of August 25, 2001, has inspired us to plan much more ambitious work in this area. Why has almost everybody ignored white-light flares over the last few years, just when data have been getting so good? Finally, I will participate in the SOHO 11 workshop at Davos, giving a paper on "Cyclic changes in coronal holes", and I hope at the same time write a paper with Arge, Harvey, and Kahler on "skinny coronal holes." By then HESSI will be launched and drastic revisions of plans are probable! PUBLIC SERVICE: Refereeing for GRL, ApJ, Solar Physics, and the NSF; help with Yohkoh science nuggets; additions to the cartoon archive. PUBLICATIONS Papers Submitted: H. Hudson: "A rapidly moving hard X-ray source in a CME", submitted to the Yohkoh 10th anniversary proceedings volume. Preprint available at http://sprg.ssl.berkeley.edu/~hhudson/y10.pdf TAKEDA AKI: Activities for December 2001 and January 2002: With the visit of two COs from MSU, D. McKenzie and J. Sato, I was released from most of the daily duties as an SXT chief observer. I only contributed for a few days while they have to leave ISAS and when we plan the special operation for the annular eclipse observation at 14th Dec. For the latter, I mainly communicated with J-side stuffs to obtain the basic data necessary for planning observation and to inform the fixed plan to the operation side (SSOC tobans). As is well known, this special observation unfortunately did not completed due to the fatal disturbance of the S/C attitude, which finally forced Yohkoh a long sleep. The rest of the period was spent for proceeding my study on the 'gorgeous' coronal hole. Based on the close comparison between SXT and magnetic field synoptic maps through several Carrington rotations (No. 1964-1972), I tried to understand its evolution and rotation rate. The results were presented in a poster session of the Yohkoh 10th anniversary meeting held at Kona, Hawaii from 21st to 24th January. JANOS BARTUS Activities for December 2001 and January 2002: During this period isass0 failed several times due to faults in one of the RAID disk. I replaced the damaged RAID disk and rebuilt the RAID array. I updated the webserver on isass0/1/pollux with the latest version. I also updated the RAID firmware/BIOS/SMOR to improve the performance of the machines isass0 and isass1. Because of this, the motherboard BIOS also had to be updated on isass0 and isass1. I also ensured all the machines were connected via UPS systems to protect them against power cuts. I created a special software rescue kit for isass1 (IDE RAID) so that if the SCSI RAID array fails to switch over to the IDE RAID backup system. This rescue kit can be used by nonexperts in cases when I am not available. The computers isass5, pollux, and flare29, as well as the noisy RAID boxes, were moved to the adjacent room onto a special computer rack. The analysis room used by people is now a quieter and more userfriendly environment. In preparation for the Yohkoh 10th Anniversary Meeting in Hawaii Greg Slater and I first developed a videoserver using a desktop PC to present the whole mission SXT movie in a format which could be used for scientific analysis. In the next stage we developed a videoserver using a laptop PC. We took this more compact system to Hawaii and presented it to the people there as part of our poster paper presentation. We also created several copies of a DVD containing the whole mission SXT movie and distributed them for VIPs at the conference. I recently set up a new faster video server using faster processors, motherboard and larger memory. During this period I also kept the various systems updated (through Red Hat network). Recently, the pollux computer which contains the entire Yohkoh database failed. I fixed it. I also carried out TRACE database management. Page 8 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 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 February 2002 January 2002 |------------------------------- | 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 January 2002 |------------------------------- |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 | 12 | ------------------------|------------------------|-----------------|-----------