STEREO Weekly Meeting Minutes for 2021-08-17 (Week 33) ANNOUNCEMENTS ------------- * None INSTRUMENT and SPACECRAFT STATUS -------------------------------- * Ahead is operating nominally. PLASTIC is in operational mode, but with a high 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 32 (Aug 9-15) * On day 222 (Aug 10), during the DSS-54 support for Ahead, uplink activities were delayed 25 minutes until 1832z, due to the transmitter tripping offline at 1807z. This anomaly resulted in the loss 0.4 hours of real-time commanding, 2-way tracking, and 340 frames SSR data during the transition to 2-way downlink mode. The MOPs team repositioned the SSR pointers during the track and recovered all the affected data. See DR #M113782 for more information. * On day 222 (Aug 10), during the DSS-14 support for Ahead, turbo decoder lock was lost briefly at 2309z. This anomaly resulted in the loss of one frame of SSR data. * On day 223 (Aug 11), during the DSS-34 support for Ahead, turbo decoder lock was lost intermittently from 0740z to 1034z, due to poor weather conditions. This anomaly resulted in the loss of 51845 frames of SSR data. The MOPs team repositioned the SSR pointers during the support and recovered all the affected data. See DR #C115902 for more information. * The station 35 status has changed since last week's telecon. It is now not expected to be back online until week 40, Oct 8. All the STEREO tracks have been adjusted to take this into account. * On day 222 (Aug 10), SECCHI SSR Partition 19 on Ahead reached 100% full at for 1.1 hours from 1723z thru 1826z. This was related to the special COR2 polarized brightness campaign in support of the Parker Solar Probe perihelion pass. * As of day 227 (Aug 15), all PLASTIC systems on Ahead are behaving well, except there is a high background count rate, which the team is continuing to monitor. * The average daily science data return for Ahead was 6.8 Gbits during this week. Week 33 (Aug 16-22) * Ahead now has eleven passes during the week, and overall coverage is nominal. There are eight passes at 720 kbps, and three passes at 480 kbps. An ESA Malargue pass is scheduled for Thursday, Aug 19. * Yesterday, Aug 16, the station 63 transmitter was down, and the pass was executed as downlink only. * Last night, the station 14 pass had ground configuration issues which caused the pass to start 45 minutes late. Commanding was impacted. This resulted in the loss of 39 minutes of SSR data. The MOC will try to recover the in situ data during the next pass. Week 34 (Aug 23-29) * Ahead has eleven passes during the week, and overall coverage is nominal. There are ten passes at 720 kbps and one at 480 kbps. An ESA Malargue pass was added on Tuesday, Aug 24. * Solar Orbiter will be in quadrature with Earth on Monday, Aug 23. * A software upgrade will be peformed on the IONet routers and switches between 8:30-10:30 AM (12:30-14:30 UTC) on Monday, Aug 23. Week 35 (Aug 30-Sep 5) * Ahead has eleven passes during the week, and overall coverage is nominal. There are ten passes at 720 kbps, and one at 480 kbps. An ESA Cebreros pass has been added on Aug 31, and an ESA New Norcia pass on Sep 5. * The Solar Orbiter spacecraft will be performing a calibration roll for the METIS coronagraph instrument on Tuesday, Aug 31. The SOLOHI instrument will also take part in this roll campaign. Week 36 (Sep 6-12) * Ahead has nine passes during the week, all at 720 kbps, and overall coverage in nominal. An ESA New Norcia track is scheduled for Wednesday, Sep 8, from 08:30-11:15 UT at 720 kbps. * Monday, Sep 6 is Labor Day, an APL holiday * Tuesday, Sep 7 is the 140th momentum dump with ignition at 18:45 UT. * Sunday, Sep 12 will be the start of the 6th SECCHI-Solar Orbiter campaign, to run from Sep 12-19 (DOY 255-262). Week 37 (Sep 13-19) * Ahead has eleven passes during the week, and overall coverage is nominal. There are ten tracks at 720 kbps, and one at 480 kbps. * The Solar Orbiter remote sensing window ends on Sunday, Sep 19. Week 38 (Sep 20-26) * Ahead has eleven passes during the week, and overall coverage is nominal. There are six passes at 720 kbps, and five at 480 kbps. COORDINATED OBSERVATIONS ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Scheduled activities for Week 33: M Aug 16 (228) T Aug 17 (229) W Aug 18 (230) T Aug 19 (231) F Aug 20 (232) S Aug 21 (233) S Aug 22 (234) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Scheduled activities for Week 34: M Aug 23 (235) Solar Orbiter in quadrature with Earth T Aug 24 (236) W Aug 25 (237) T Aug 26 (238) F Aug 27 (239) S Aug 28 (240) S Aug 29 (241) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Scheduled activities for Week 35: M Aug 30 (242) T Aug 31 (243) Solar Orbiter METIS, SOLOHI roll W Sep 01 (244) T Sep 02 (245) F Sep 03 (246) S Sep 04 (247) S Sep 05 (248) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Scheduled activities for Week 36: M Sep 06 (249) Labor Day T Sep 07 (250) 140th momentum dump, 18:45 UT W Sep 08 (251) T Sep 09 (252) F Sep 10 (253) S Sep 11 (254) S Sep 12 (255) Start of Solar Orbiter remote sensing window Notes: * Solar Orbiter remote sensing window, Sep 12-19. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Scheduled activities for Week 37: M Sep 13 (256) T Sep 14 (257) W Sep 15 (258) T Sep 16 (259) F Sep 17 (260) S Sep 18 (261) S Sep 19 (262) End of Solar Orbiter remote sensing window Notes: * Solar Orbiter remote sensing window, Sep 12-19. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Scheduled activities for Week 38: M Sep 20 (263) T Sep 21 (264) W Sep 22 (265) T Sep 23 (266) F Sep 24 (267) S Sep 25 (268) S Sep 26 (269) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Upcoming events: Behind events are contingent on recovering the spacecraft. 2021: * Oct 16 Parker Solar Probe Venus flyby * Nov 5 Solar Orbiter along Sun-Earth line * Nov 17-26 Parker Solar Probe perihelion pass * Nov 27 Solar Orbiter Earth flyby * Dec 4 Solar eclipse in Antartica * Dec 17-21 Solar Orbiter METIS observations of Comet Leonard 2022: * Feb 21-Mar 2 Parker Solar Probe perihelion pass * May 28-Jun 7 Parker Solar Probe perihelion pass * Sep 2-11 Parker Solar Probe perihelion pass * Sep 4 Solar Orbiter Venus flyby * Dec 7-16 Parker Solar Probe perihelion pass 2023: * Mar 13-23 Parker Solar Probe perihelion pass * May 5 Behind: Mercury transit * Jun 17-27 Parker Solar Probe perihelion pass * Jul 17 Behind: Closest approach to Earth * Aug 13 Ahead: Closest approach to Earth * Aug 21 Parker Solar Probe Venus flyby * Sep 23-Oct 3 Parker Solar Probe perihelion pass * 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 2027: * Feb 1 Behind: Mercury transit 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