Jan 7 2pm Radiation Telecon ---------------------------- A radiation telecon was held at 2pm EST on January 7, 2014. The situation is as follows: The ACE P3 flux is about 12k and declining with a half-life of about 2 hrs, except for a bump in the last 20 min. The other ACE Proton channels show similar behavior: declining except for the bump. Fluence this orbit so far is about 0.8e9. The current observation, obsid 15192 is scheduled to end just after the start of the comm at 10:15 EST tonight. None of the targets for this week are constrained except for the DDT, obsid 16561, which is scheduled for Thursday morning local time. At current 2-hr average ACE rates we will hit a fluence of 1e9 in a few hours, but the 2e9 limit will be tomorrow some time. There's pretty high confidence we'll make the 10:15 EST comm tonight (P3 flux must average under 40k), and we may well reach the 08:30 EST comm tomorrow morning (P3 flux must average under 18k). If the P3 flux averages under 12k or so, we will make it to radmon disable scheduled for 5:36pm EST tomorrow. I recommended (and the assembled committee concurred) that we press forward with this observation, while monitoring the rates carefully over the next 27 hours or so. No further telecons are currently scheduled, but will be called as needed. Note from Rich Edagr Jan 7, 4:48pm --------------------------------- Based on the GOES proxy for the HRC shield rate, and the actual HRC shield rate and ACIS threshold crossings as we were losing comm this afternoon, it seems likely that one or the other instrument will have tripped RADMON and discontinued science. The next comm is at 10:15 EST tonight. The mission planners may want to start thinking about how to rearrange the schedule. If these are prompt protons from the X-class flare, the time profile might match the one on Jan 6 (which hit us during the belts). Or it might not, of course, this space weather business is not very precise. We'll probably be in touch tonight when we have data again. Jan 7, 10pm Radiation telecon ------------------------------ The 008:03:15Z comm was established early and SCS-107 indicated disabled. The OBC error-log indicates that SCS-107 ran at 2014:007:20:39:16Z and telemetry indicates that its action were nominal. If the radiation recovers soon enough we will plan to restart observing following the next rad-zone passage with an uplink during the 009:1030-1130Z pass (BOT Thursday 5:30am EST). We will tag-up at tomorrow's 9am telecon to review the status of the radiation environment. Jan 8, 9pm Radiation Tag-up ---------------------------- Radiation levels are high. The GOES proxy for the HRC antico shield rate is ~10x the threshold ad dropping slowly. A CME is predicted to reach the Earth early tomorrow. It is questionable whether the Plan A loads can be used but work will continue on their production and review. A Go/No-Go decision on Plan A will be held at 5am EST on 1165#. A Plan B resumption will be worked in parallel that would use the 010:0400-0500Z comm (Thurs 11pm BOT) for uplink and start with the maneuver to ObsID 15104. This would combine the remainder of the JAN0614 week with JAN1314. Jan 9 5am Go/No-Go Summary --------------------------- At the plan A uplink opportunity the GOES proxy for the HRC antico shield rate exceeded the RadMon threshold. Resumption of observing with the JAN0914B product was a "No-Go". We will discuss the radiation environment trends and plan going forward at the 9am tag-up. Jan 9 9am Tag-up Summary ------------------------- Hard-proton radiation is still high but dropping. Soft-protons are flat and at the current level would likely allow plan B to proceed. ACIS has a CAP ready for review at 11am that would collect data for CTI prior to the observing restart. A Go/No-Go review of the radiation for proceeding with the CAP will be held on 1165# at 2pm EST. Plan B product are in-work. Re-arrange the tail of JAN0614 to get the DDT (ObsID 16561) inserted and the JAN1314 week included. Working the thermal limits. Load review will be announced when products are ready. There will be a Go/No-Go telecon for resumption of observing at 11pm EST on 1165# Jan 9 10pm Go/No Go Telecon ------------------------------ At the start of comm the ACE P3 rate was still too high to resume observing. The average would need to be a factor of at least two lower to complete the orbit below the fluence budget. The plan B JAN1014A products were not uplinked. We will now try to resume (plan C) at the 011:0335-0435z pass. The missed DDT observation (ObsID 16561) will be the first target just before rad-zone entry. The products are planned to be distributed for review tomorrow morning. Jan 10 Go/No Go Teloecon ------------------------- The hard proton rates continue their decline and the soft protons rates are flat-to-declining and low enough to start. We are "Go" to resume observing with the JAN1114A products. We are still subject to disturbances from the large Sun-spot. Standard alerts will be used to call for radiation discussions as needed.