STEREO Weekly Meeting Minutes for 2023-03-07 (Week 10) ANNOUNCEMENTS ------------- * Dan Wilson has sent a draft of the minutes from the STEREO Assessment Review. The first email is incomplete--the full minutes are in the second email. Please send any comments or corrections by next Tuesday, Mar 14. INSTRUMENT and SPACECRAFT STATUS -------------------------------- * Ahead is operating nominally. PLASTIC is in operational mode, but with a moderately higher than normal background rate. * Four years after the initial loss of communications anomaly with the Behind observatory, NASA has directed to cease periodic recovery operations with the last support on October 17, 2018. DISCUSSION AND OPERATIONS CONSTRAINTS ------------------------------------- Week 9 (Feb 27-Mar 5) * On day 058 (Feb 27), during the DSS-25 support for Ahead, the MOC conducted a successful Project Interface Test (PIT) in parallel with the normal track. The purpose was to validate OpsAna-17 telemetry server operations and data delivery for the TTC software (v2.4). The MOC received real-time telemetry through the OpsAna-17 server with the same performance as the nominal SLE operational server. * On day 060 (Mar 1), during the DSS-55 support for Ahead, turbo decoder lock was lost intermittently between 1433z and 1557z. This anomaly resulted in the loss of 172 frames of SSR data. The MOPs team repositioned the SSR pointers during the support and recovered all the affected data. See DR #M115598 for more information. * On day 062 (Mar 3), during the DSS-34 support for Ahead, turbo decoder lock was lost briefly at 1009z. This anomaly resulted in the loss of five frames of SSR data. The MOPs team repositioned the SSR pointers during the support and recovered all the affected data. * On day 064 (Mar 5), during the DSS-56 support for Ahead, turbo decoder lock was lost briefly at 1753z. This anomaly resulted in the loss of five frames of SSR data. * As of day 064 (Mar 5), all PLASTIC systems on Ahead are behaving well, except there is a moderate background count rate, which the team is continuing to monitor. * The average daily science data return for Ahead was 6.2 Gbits during this week. * A question was raised whether the number of turbo decoder lock issues is increasing. Loss of lock is typical on station 34, but not on the other two stations this week. This will be looked into. It may be possible to open up the bandwidth. Week 10 (Mar 6-12) * Ahead has nine tracks during the week, all at 720 kbps, and overall coverage is nominal. * The 154th momentum dump on Ahead was successfully carried out yesterday (Mar 6), with ignition at 22:00 UT. * Daylight Savings Time in the US begins on Sunday, Mar 12. Week 11 (Mar 13-19) * Ahead has nine tracks during the week, all at 720 kbps, and overall coverage is nominal. * The Parker Solar Probe perihelion pass starts on Mar 13, and runs through Mar 23 (DOY 72-82). * It was pointed out that Parker Solar Probe, Solar Orbiter, Bepi-Colombo, and STEREO will all roughly in a line during the perihelion pass. Week 12 (Mar 20-26) * Ahead has ten tracks during the week, all at 720 kbps, and overall coverage is nominal. * Network maintenance will be performed at the MOC on Tuesday, Mar 21, between 17-19 UT. No impact is expected. * The Solar Orbiter Remote Sensing Window #7 starts on Wednesday, Mar 22, and runs through Apr 1 (DOY 81-91). Week 13 (Mar 27-Apr 2) * Ahead has ten tracks during the week, all at 720 kbps, and overall coverage is nominal. Week 14 (Apr 2-9) * Ahead has ten tracks during the week, all at 720 kbps, and overall coverage is nominal. * The Solar Orbiter Remote Sensing Window #8 starts on Tuesday, Apr 4, and runs through April 17 (DOY 94-107). Week 15 (Apr 10-16) * Ahead has ten tracks during the week, all at 720 kbps, and overall coverage is nominal. * The 155th momentum dump on Ahead is scheduled for Wednesday, Apr 12, with ignition at 19:00 UT. This dump occurs within the Solar Orbiter Remote Sensing Window 8, but there are no specific plans for SECCHI for that week yet. * Solar Orbiter will observe an occultation of Venus by the Sun on Sunday, Apr 16. Other * The STEREO planners have put together a plan for Week 27 to accommodate the SECCHI high cadence campaign. This plan has been sent to the SECCHI team for review, but looks good. The planners hope that the following three weeks of the campaign will have similar coverage. COORDINATED OBSERVATIONS ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Scheduled activities for Week 10: M Mar 06 (065) Ahead: Momentum dump, 22:00 UT T Mar 07 (066) W Mar 08 (067) T Mar 09 (068) F Mar 10 (069) S Mar 11 (070) S Mar 12 (071) Daylight Savings Time begins in US ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Scheduled activities for Week 11: M Mar 13 (072) Beginning of Parker Solar Probe perihelion pass T Mar 14 (073) W Mar 15 (074) Ahead: SECCHI COR2 pB campaign T Mar 16 (075) Ahead: SECCHI COR2 pB campaign F Mar 17 (076) Ahead: SECCHI COR2 Deep Field + EUVI 171A Deep Field campaign S Mar 18 (077) Ahead: SECCHI COR2 Deep Field + EUVI 171A Deep Field campaign S Mar 19 (078) Ahead: SECCHI COR2 Deep Field + EUVI 171A Deep Field campaign Notes: * Parker Solar Probe perihelion pass, Mar 13-23 * SECCHI COR2 Deep Field + EUVI 171A Deep Field campaign, Mar 17-20 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Scheduled activities for Week 12: M Mar 20 (079) Ahead: SECCHI COR2 Deep Field + EUVI 171A Deep Field campaign T Mar 21 (080) W Mar 22 (081) Start of Solar Orbiter Remote Sensing Window 7 T Mar 23 (082) End of Parker Solar Probe perihelion pass F Mar 24 (083) S Mar 25 (084) S Mar 26 (085) Notes: * Parker Solar Probe perihelion pass, Mar 13-23 * SECCHI COR2 Deep Field + EUVI 171A Deep Field campaign, Mar 17-20 * Solar Orbiter Remote Sensing Window 7, Mar 22-Apr 1 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Scheduled activities for Week 13: M Mar 27 (086) T Mar 28 (087) W Mar 29 (088) T Mar 30 (089) F Mar 31 (090) S Apr 01 (091) End of Solar Orbiter Remote Sensing Window 7 S Apr 02 (092) Notes: * Solar Orbiter Remote Sensing Window 7, Mar 22-Apr 1 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Scheduled activities for Week 14: M Apr 03 (093) T Apr 04 (094) Start of Solar Orbiter Remote Sensing Window 8 W Apr 05 (095) T Apr 06 (096) F Apr 07 (097) S Apr 08 (098) S Apr 09 (099) Notes: * Solar Orbiter Remote Sensing Window 8, Apr 4-17 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Scheduled activities for Week 15: M Apr 10 (100) T Apr 11 (101) W Apr 12 (102) Ahead: Momentum dump, 19 UT. T Apr 13 (103) F Apr 14 (104) S Apr 15 (105) S Apr 16 (106) Solar Orbiter Venus occultation Notes: * Solar Orbiter Remote Sensing Window 8, Apr 4-17 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Upcoming events: 2023: * Apr 4-17 Solar Orbiter Remote Sensing Window 8 * Apr 20-24 Solar Orbiter Remote Sensing Window 9 * Jun 17-27 Parker Solar Probe perihelion pass * Jun 27 Solar Orbiter Mercury transit * Jul 2 Behind: Closest approach to Earth * Aug 17 Ahead: Closest approach to Earth * Aug 21 Parker Solar Probe Venus flyby * Sep 23-Oct 3 Parker Solar Probe perihelion pass * Oct 1-10 Solar Orbiter Remote Sensing Window 10 * Oct 12-21 Solar Orbiter Remote Sensing Window 11 * Oct 23-Nov 1 Solar Orbiter Remote Sensing Window 12 * Dec 25-Jan 3 Parker Solar Probe perihelion pass 2024: * Mar 26-Apr 4 Parker Solar Probe perihelion pass * Jun 26-Jul 5 Parker Solar Probe perihelion pass * Sep 26-Oct 5 Parker Solar Probe perihelion pass * Nov 6 Parker Solar Probe Venus flyby, in HI2-A field-of-view * Dec 20-29 Parker Solar Probe perihelion pass 2025: * Feb 18 Solar Orbiter Venus flyby * Mar 19-27 Parker Solar Probe perihelion pass * Apr 7 Ahead: Mercury transit * Jun 15-24 Parker Solar Probe perihelion pass 2026: * Dec 24 Solar Orbiter Venus flyby 2028: * Mar 18 Solar Orbiter Venus flyby 2029: * Jun 10 Solar Orbiter Venus flyby * Jun 30 Ahead: Mercury transit 2030: * Sep 3 Solar Orbiter Venus flyby