STEREO Weekly Meeting Minutes for 2009-12-29 (Week 53) ANNOUNCEMENTS ------------- * None INSTRUMENT and SPACECRAFT STATUS -------------------------------- * All subsystems on both spacecraft are nominal. DISCUSSION AND OPERATIONS CONSTRAINTS ------------------------------------- Week 52 * Station 65 intermittently lost Turbo lock telemetry during the Ahead pass on day 355 (Dec 21) due to snow in Madrid. Telemetry was lost starting at 06:17 UT, and continued through the rest of the track at 10:30 UT. Several minutes of SSR data were lost for all instruments. * Turbo lock was again lost intermittently during the station 55 track of Ahead on day 356 (Dec 22) from 05:27-10:55 UT, due to a known problem with the station. Several minutes of SSR data were lost for all instruments. * SECCHI reported that they had never before seen so many dropouts as occured on Dec 21 and 22. * The problem with station 55 was repeated during the Behind pass on day 356 (Dec 22). * The station 55 transmitter went offline during the Behind pass on day 357 (Dec 23) at 14:16 UT, and was re-established at 14:42 UT. This resulted in the loss of several minutes of SSR data for all instruments. * Telemetry lock was lost intermittently during the station 45 pass on Behind on day 361 (Dec 27) because of heavy rain. This resulted in the loss of several hours of SSR data for all instruments. * The 20th momentum dump was successfully carried out on Behind on day 356 (Dec 22) at 16:00 UT. A delta-V of 0.0638 m/s was imparted. * The average daily SSR downlink was 6.1 gigabits on Ahead and 4.0 gigabits on Behind. * On December 25 and 26, the SWAVES, IMPACT, and PLASTIC partitions on Behind filled up. There was some discussion about whether further instances are expected now that Behind is at 240 kbps. It was decided that this was due primarily to the telemetry schedule dropping back over the Christmas holiday. Week 53 * DSN reports that they're still troubleshooting the problems with station 55, and some progress has been made. A track on Ahead was performed this morning using station 55 with no reported problems. * Behind is being downloaded during the telecon (Dec 29) using 70 meter station 63 at 720 kbps. * New Years Eve (Dec 31) is a half-day holiday at APL. Week 1 * HGA calibrations will be carried out on both spacecraft on Jan 6. The start times will be Ahead: 14:00, Behind: 16:00 UT. * The 12th SECCHI stepped calibration roll will be carried out on Behind on Jan 5, starting at 12:15 UT. This is the midpoint roll. * A 2.5 hour PIT test track will be carried out on Behind using station 15 on Jan 7, between 01:30 and 03:55 UT. There will be no SSR playback and no instrument commanding during this track. This track will be following a 9 hour HGA track, so no need for commanding is anticipated. * SECCHI raised the question of whether the weekly schedule for Week 1 was out yet. The MOC responded that it should be out now. * DSN reported that station 63 has equatorial interface issues that lower it's efficiency by 0.3 dB, and is currently rated orange. This is not expected to impact STEREO. * There are several shorter tracks of 3-4 hour durations on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday (Jan 4-6), but the HGA tracks on the 6th are 8-9 hours long. Week 2 * No significant activities planned. Week 3 * The 27th momentum dump will be carried out on Ahead on Jan 19, starting at 16:00 UT. Other * SWAVES remarked on the large number of Type 3 radio bursts that have been observed recently. A Type 3 event on Dec 16 was observed as a rare in situ event by SWAVES, with the start of the event around 2 UT, and the in situ signature at around 4 UT. Since Dec 21, there have been a large number of Type 3 events, with at least one event occuring every day. This has coincided with a large number of active regions occuring on the Sun. COORDINATED OBSERVATIONS ------------------------ ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Scheduled activities for Week 53: M Dec 28 (362) T Dec 29 (363) Behind: 720 kbps downlink on station 63 W Dec 30 (364) T Dec 31 (365) F Jan 01 (001) New Year S Jan 02 (002) S Jan 03 (003) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Scheduled activities for Week 01: M Jan 04 (004) T Jan 05 (005) Behind: SECCHI stepped calibration roll, 12:15 W Jan 06 (006) HGA calibration, Ahead 14:00 UT, Behind 16:00 UT T Jan 07 (007) Behind: PIT test track, station 15, 01:30-03:55 EIT shutterless (TBC) F Jan 08 (008) S Jan 09 (009) S Jan 10 (010) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Scheduled activities for Week 02: M Jan 11 (011) T Jan 12 (012) W Jan 13 (013) T Jan 14 (014) F Jan 15 (015) EIT shutterless (TBC) S Jan 16 (016) S Jan 17 (017) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Scheduled activities for Week 03: M Jan 18 (018) T Jan 19 (019) Ahead: Momentum dump, 16:00 UT W Jan 20 (020) T Jan 21 (021) F Jan 22 (022) S Jan 23 (023) S Jan 24 (024) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Upcoming events: 2010: ICAL-001: Jan 11-15, Feb 15-19, Mar 15-19, Apr 12-16, May 3-7 SECCHI Stepped calibration rolls Ahead: Feb 23, May 18, Aug 10, Nov 2 Behind: Apr 6, Jul 13, Oct 12 * Spring (TBD) SUMI sounding rocket launch http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2008AGUSMSP51B..01A * Apr 8,15 EIT shutterless (TBC) * Apr 19 Ahead: Begin 7 hour daily DSN tracks * Apr 26 Ahead: Switch downlink rate to 240 kbps * Jul 8,15 EIT shutterless (TBC) * Jul 11 Total solar eclipse http://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/SEmono/TSE2010/TSE2010.html * Jul 14 Both: HGA calibration * Sep 7 Both: Begin 8 hour daily DSN tracks * Sep 13 Both: Switch downlink rate to 160 kbps * Nov 15 Behind: Switch downlink rate to 120 kbps 2011: * Jan 12 Both: HGA calibration * Feb 6 STEREO spacecraft at 180 degree separation * Mar 18 Messenger - Mercury orbital insertion * Apr 11 Ahead: Switch downlink rate to 120 kbps * Jul 13 Both: HGA calibration * Aug DAWN - Vesta arrival * Sep 19 Behind: Switch downlink rate to 96 kbps * Sep 26 Ahead: Switch downlink rate to 96 kbps 2012: * Jan 11 Both: HGA calibration * May DAWN - Vesta departure * Jul 11 Both: HGA calibration * Aug Both: Switch downlink rate to 30 kbps * Nov 13 Total solar eclipse, south Pacific 2013: * Dec 12 Ahead: Possible Mercury transit (TBC) 2014: * Apr 29 Behind: Possible Mercury transit (TBC) 2015: * Feb DAWN - Ceres arrival * Jan 10 - Apr 12 Behind: Spacecraft behind Sun * Feb 17 - Aug 2 Ahead: Spacecraft behind Sun * Jul 23 - Nov 10 Behind: Spacecraft behind Sun * Jul DAWN - End of nominal mission