ACIS Instrument Support - Monthly Progress Report for December 2016

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).

  ...  New raw mode frames collected in October and November.  Analyzed and posted to http://space.mit.edu/home/fergason/acis/raw.html.

  ...  Updated version of the ACIS monitoring software "catnrt" running on the test SAO monitoring machine.   

  ...  Added additional ACIS ops team members to MIT pmon alert list.
  

2.  Engineering

2.1 Instrument hardware engineering performance

  ...  On December 9, it was discovered that the ACIS DPA side A was unexpectedly powered off.  The ACIS team has concluded that this was due to an SEU in the ACIS PSMC similar to previous events in 2000, 2002, and 2015.  Supported anomaly investigation and analysis.  Reviewed recovery CAP 1407 (http://acis.mit.edu/asc/cap/CAP1407.pdf).  Recovery procedures completed at the next available comm after discovery with only 27 ksec of science time lost.

  ...  Continue to monitor long term ACIS instrument performance.  Besides the anomalous DPA-A shutdown, all engineering data remains nominal.
  
  ...  The EEPROM checksum was verified in the DEC1216 load.   Will continue to run monthly.  MIT telemetry processing will automatically check the results and send out an alert if the checksum is unexpected.

  ...  Verified that ACIS engineering unit room was unaffected by water leak in an adjacent room.

  ...  Reviewed SOP to turn on DEA-B.

2.2 Flight software maintenance

  ...  Flight software patch F-G-H (improved buscrash2) uploaded in June 2014.

  ...  Examined recent TXINGs data and determined that the current "optimal" parameters are still appropriate and new parameters do not yet need to be uploaded.  Will check again in March.

2.3 Instrument science performance

  ...  Participated in monthly ACIS operations meetings.  Discussed DPA-A shutdown and ObsID 18278 anomalies and our responses.

  ...  Contributing to new ACIS quick-look anomaly reference web pages.  Very helpful during the Dec 9 DPA-A shutdown. Suggested additional improvements based on that experience.

  ...  Investigated new ACIS anomaly during ObsID 18278 in which one CCD/FEP started telemetering only every other frame.  Anomaly has never been seen before and was cleared by the power cycle before the next observation.  Memo describing anomaly and the possible cause released in January. (ftp://acis.mit.edu/pub/acis-18278-anom-v1.2.pdf)

  ...  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.

2.5 Participate in Chandra activities

  ...  Participated in FOT Backup OCC test.  MIT supported test by reading EHS blocks, extracting ACIS science and housekeeping statistics, displaying them, and comparing the backup OCC telemetry dumps to to those received in the TST room through standard channels.


3.  CXC Support

3.1 Provide user support

  ...  ACIS memo listing calibration ObsIDs and observation characteristics (ACIS Memo #165) will no longer be updated.  Functionality is replaced by new web page (http://acis.mit.edu/asc/evt-page.html), which provides the same information but is more automated.

  ...  Answered user question on CC-mode calibration status and how to retrieve ECS data from the archive.

3.2 Provide data analysis support

  ...  Participated in CXC Cal/Ops ACIS response discussion group.  Discussed updates to tgain and to the temperature-dependent CTI correction and bakeout simulations.

  ...  Discussed anomalous bias with SDS scientist.

  ...  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.  Performed monthly check of all ACIS hardware and software in the TST room at the OCC.

  ...  Working on better documentation of the ACIS EGSE machines, particularly for anomaly recovery response in the absence of an expert user.

4.2 Generation of commands for ACIS observations

  ...  Continued review and updating of SACGS documentation (SACGS = SOT ACIS Command Generation System).  

  ...  Continuing familiarization with SACGS operation and under-the-hood functioning.  Discussed modernization of SI modes.

  ...  Reviewed DEC1916A and DEC1916B command loads.  Reviewed DEC2616 preliminary schedule and final OR lists.  Reviewed JAN0917 Long Term Schedule OR list and preliminary schedule.

  ...  Reviewed JUL0416S test command load.

  ...  Dropped chips from eighteen obsids.  Assigned two SI modes.  Build one new SI mode.

  ...  Answered question about with bias vs. no bias SI mode setup commands.

  ...  Suggested bug fix to ACIS load review software and how it displays the ACIS tables used in the load.

  ...  Checking on automated processes associated with SACGS.