ACIS Instrument Support - Monthly Progress Report for August 2018

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).

  ...  Installed ACIS real-time monitoring software (perl and modules, catnrt, getnrt, and pmon) onto acisocc-w, which is destined for the new OCC.


2.  Engineering

2.1 Instrument hardware engineering performance

  ...  Continue to monitor long term ACIS instrument performance.  A review of engineering data over the past 60 days shows no unexpected trends.
  
  ...  The EEPROM checksum was verified in the AUG0718 load.   Will continue to run monthly.  MIT telemetry processing will automatically check the results and send out an alert if the checksum is unexpected.

  ...  The ACIS Engineering Unit was powered down on two occasions, the first for 10 days, the second for 3, to prevent overheating during HVAC work.

  ...  Reviewed RTS files and command loads for the SOP: Switch from DEA-A to DEA-B

2.2 Flight software maintenance

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

  ...  We continue to monitor threshold crossing rates.  The current TXINGS parameters, which were last updated on July 28, 2016, will need to be updated in the next few months to keep the trigger thresholds well above the increasing particle background.  This update will likely be the last increase, as the rates should subsequently start dropping again.

  ...  Reviews completed for ACIS patch level G-H-I.  This patch makes two changes to the current FGH patches.  Updated buscrash2 patch to force end of science run following SCS107, and new deahktrip patch to respond to "red alert" DPA component temperatures. ACIS bilevel values for a thermal red alert have been passed to the FOT.

2.3 Instrument science performance

  ...  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

  ...  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.

3.2 Provide data analysis support

  ...  Participated in CXC Cal/Ops ACIS response discussion group.  Discussed new contamination results and impact of potential increases in the focal plane temperature limits.

  ...  Met with new CXC SDS hire to further discuss future improvements to the temperature-dependent CTI correction in acis_process_events.

  ...  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 updating documentation.

  ...  New EGSE workstations for the relocated Wayside OCC have passed all tests in the Hampshire St OCC.  Participating in discussions of test procedures for the new OCC.  

  ...  Repaired corruption of the ACIS parameter repository data file cause by a bug in the SACGS script which extracts parameters from the Obscat.

  ...  Tested ACIS command generation process on CentOS 7.

  ...  Reviewed AUG2018A and AUG2018B command loads. Reviewed AUG2018 and AUG2718 preliminary schedules, AUG2018 (x3) and AUG2718 final OR list, and SEP0318 Long Term Schedule OR list.

  ...  Dropped chips from 3 ObsIDs.  Assigned 15 SI modes.

  ...  Checking on automated processes associated with SACGS.