From csillag@sunspot.ssl.berkeley.edu Tue Oct 1 10:43:33 2002 Received: from sunspot.ssl.berkeley.edu (sunspot.ssl.berkeley.edu [128.32.147.25]) by ssl.berkeley.edu (8.11.6+Sun/8.9.3) with ESMTP id g91HhVL21421; Tue, 1 Oct 2002 10:43:31 -0700 (PDT) Received: from sunspot.ssl.berkeley.edu (loki.ssl.berkeley.edu [128.32.147.16]) by sunspot.ssl.berkeley.edu (8.11.6+Sun/8.11.6) with ESMTP id g91HhUm14515; Tue, 1 Oct 2002 10:43:30 -0700 (PDT) Received: from ssl.berkeley.edu (apollo.ssl.berkeley.edu [128.32.147.81]) by sunspot.ssl.berkeley.edu (8.11.6+Sun/8.11.6) with ESMTP id g91HhU814512; Tue, 1 Oct 2002 10:43:30 -0700 (PDT) Received: from MCCSILLAGH (tournesol.ssl.berkeley.edu [128.32.98.149]) by ssl.berkeley.edu (8.11.6+Sun/8.9.3) with ESMTP id g91HhOL21395; Tue, 1 Oct 2002 10:43:24 -0700 (PDT) Reply-To: From: "Andre Csillaghy 510-642-9498" To: "'Manfred Bester'" , , Cc: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , Subject: RHESSI Thoban Report, Sep 23-30, 2002 Date: Tue, 1 Oct 2002 10:44:32 -0700 Organization: University of California, Berkeley Message-ID: <055e01c26972$334df350$95622080@MCCSILLAGH> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" X-Priority: 3 (Normal) X-MSMail-Priority: Normal X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook, Build 10.0.4024 In-Reply-To: <200205212021.g4LKL6I13308@solen.ssl.berkeley.edu> Importance: Normal X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V6.00.2600.0000 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit X-MIME-Autoconverted: from quoted-printable to 8bit by ssl.berkeley.edu id g91HhVL21421 Content-Length: 4611 Status: R RHESSI tohban report, September 30, 2002 Reporting Period: September 23 - 30, 2002 Tohban: Andre Csillaghy Solar activity: The solar activity started low last week with only minor C-class flares happening in the first four days (Sept 23 - Sept 26). AR 0132 and 0134 were reponsible for the activity on Sept 26. On September 27, activity increased. AR 0134 produced two low-level M-class flares, from which we observed most of the first one (12:59) and the rise phase of the second one (9:33), but we went into SAA just before the peak. We also observed a C9.9 at 3:20 up to the peak. On September 28 activity decreased again, but still a couple of C3.4 flares occured, both from 0134. However, we only observed the decay phase of those. On September 29, AR 0134 produced a M2.6 flare at 06:39, with a very fast rise all the way from the B5 background level. We had good luck and observed the full event. Later in the day we also observed fully the C9.3 at 14:44 (also from 0134) and the rise phase of the C7.8 of AR 0125 at 08:37. Spacecraft: Nominal. This week RHESSI passed it’s 3,500th orbit! Ground station: Berkeley: nominal Wallops: several contacts were canceled due to the repair of the 11m dish and the use of the 9m dish for tests with the shuttle. On Sept 26 and after, all scheduled contacts were available again. Santiago: One contact on Sept 25. Memory management and shutter operations: The SSR level was at 33% at the last contact of Sept 23, with shutter open. Due to the chance of an M-Flare from AR 0119, the shutter was moved in (1-3 mode) for the 15-hour time period without contact. During the second contact on Tuesday, Sept 24, the shutter was opened again for observation of the low-level activity (0-1-3 mode), and closed during the last Sept 24 contact, with a SSR level of 36%. On the first contact of Wednesday, Sept 25, the SSR level was at 52.8%, and brought down to 48%. The shutter was opened again (0-1-3 mode) at (about) 15:44, as the level of activity (~B5) did not have any significant contribution to the fill level, and any prevision of high-level activity was absent. Thus we decided to keep the shutter open during the 15-hour contact gap, as there was still no prediction of a higher level of activity at the time of the last contact. On the first contact of Thursday (Sept 26), the SSR level was at 63.9%. Activity was still low but the shutter was moved in at (about) 07:10 as a preventive measure. The two planned but canceled Wallops contacts generated some excitement as we had obviously less download time for all that data. During the last Berkeley contact on Sept 26, the SSR fill level was at 45.1%. The first contact on Friday, Sept 27, displayed a fill level of 60% (inlcuding data from the first M-Flare of the week). No further shutter operations were planned (we were still on 1-3 mode). At the last contact of Sept 27, we were down at a level of 40.8%. On Saturday, Sept 28, the fill level was back at 57.3%, but with plenty of contacts we were able to get the level down to 30.2% The Sunday morning, Sept 29, we were at 37.6%. The background was at it’s lowest, B4.6, so the shutter was opened again at 17:46. At the last contact of the day, the fill level was at 24.3%. It was decided at 21:09 to change to mode 1-3. However, we did not force the shutter to its new position, to get a chance of extending the observation of the low-level until the next flare. Thus, the shutter moved only when activity increased (which it eventually did), but remained in the closed position after the move. Data Gaps: 2 data gaps found on Sep 25 00:14 - Sept 26 1:18, and Sep 26 1:21 - 1:24 Other Issues: We checked regularly the monitor rate for detector #8 to get an idea about how much events are added to the telemetry while using the AFT antenna. The slow valid rates seemed to like to be at 1,200 when the other detectors were at 200 (except #2, of course). However, after a few passes the slow valid rates went to a higer number, around 8,000. Once it went to that value, it used to stay at this number until the next set of contacts the next day (with exeptions however). The cause of this is not known yet; empirically it seems that the slow valid rates for det #8 are likely to be at 1,200 or at ~8000. On Sept 30, at about 17:40 UT the thick shutter moved in an out. The analysis of the SOH showed that it was not an anomaly. We are waiting for the vc3 to understand what caused this movement. Many thanks to Hugh, Säm, Mark and Joe for answering all my questions. Tohban next week: Hugh Hudson Best regards -- André Csillaghy