ACIS Instrument Support - Monthly Progress Report for February 2015

1.  ACIS Characterization

1.3 Monitor scientific on-orbit performance of ACIS

  ...  Continued monitoring of ACIS CTI, gain, trailing pixel pulseheight, detector efficiency, corner pixel distribution, spectral line centroid and width, and focal plane temperature.  Updated monitoring web pages. (http://space.mit.edu/~cgrant/monitor.html).

  ...  Continued analysis of light leak observations of Betelgeuse.  Raw mode data taken with dither off in 2000, 2005 and late 2014.  Trying to understand if decrease in optical/IR flux can be explained by increasing contamination.  Compared results to those of CXC Cal and discussed potential improvements.


2.  Engineering

2.1 Instrument hardware engineering performance

  ...  Continue to monitor long term ACIS instrument performance.  Engineering housekeeping remains nominal.

  ...  Reviewed final draft of the SOT SOP for DEA and FEP diagnostic procedures.  Written in response to the HiLo Pixel Anomaly.  Bumped up to version 2.0 and ready for FOT SOP development.

2.2 Flight software maintenance

  ...  Flight software patch F-G-H (improved buscrash2) uploaded in June and has continued to run with no issues.

  ...  Reviewed commands for ready-to-run ECS measurements when thermal conditions require fewer than six CCDs. 

  ...  Considering improvements to txings, or to ACIS radiation monitoring more generally, in response to potential loss of ACE real-time data.

2.3 Instrument science performance

  ...  Participated in monthly ACIS operations meeting.  Discussed progress in DEA/FEP diagnostic procedures and flight EEPROM testing, possible improvements to ACIS radiation monitoring in the event of loss of real-time ACE data, and new CTI SI modes.

  ...  Participated in radiation working group telecons.  ACIS team provided expertise in details of CCDs and radiation damage. Discussed plans for radiation monitoring if ACE real-time data is lost. 

  ...  Continued daily quick-look processing of ACIS telemetry and maintained Web interface to ACIS real-time data.

  ...  Continued to publish the "annotated DOT" timeline reports.


3.  CXC Support

3.1 Provide user support

  ...  Updated ACIS memo listing calibration ObsIDs and observation characteristics (ACIS Memo #165).
 
  ...  Answered CXC SDS question on rather obscure ACIS parameters that are now in CIAO ACIS eventlist headers.

3.2 Provide data analysis support

  ...  Participated in CXC Cal/Ops ACIS response discussion group.  Discussion included new QEU maps, CC mode QE calibration, low energy gain for S1 and S3, and contamination.

  ...  Participated in planning telecon for next IACHEC meeting (April in Beijing).  Discussed meeting logistics and working group progress.

  ...  Continued to maintain ACIS calibration database of ground and flight data products.
  

4.  OCC Support

4.1 Use of MIT/ACIS EGSE at OCC

  ...  Continued support and maintenance of ACIS EGSE software and hardware at the OCC.