ACIS Instrument Support - Monthly Progress Report for June 2019

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).

  ...  Updated the alert list for SAO "pmon" to include new team members and remove retired team members.


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.

  ...  Supported Chandra OBC flight software patch review for ACIS thermal limit checking.

  ...  The EEPROM checksum was verified in the JUN1019 load.   Will continue to run monthly.  MIT telemetry processing will automatically check the results and send out an alert if the checksum is unexpected.

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 were last updated on July 28, 2016.  Threshold crossing rates may have flattened out and started decreasing recently, potentially indicating the end of solar minimum.

  ...  Continuing forward with ACIS patch level G-H-I.  This patch makes two changes to the current F-G-H patches.  Updated buscrash2 patch to force end of science run following SCS107, and new deahktrip patch to respond to "red alert" DPA component temperatures.  Continuing to build command packets for approval by Flight Directors Board and upload.

  ...  ACIS ops team reviewed the memo "ACIS Event Filtering", in particular how ACIS windows are treated by the flight software.

  ...  Released new memo describing the architecture of acisCtl, the GUI tool used to send commands to the ACIS engineering unit, and to display science results and the status of ACIS hardware and software. ftp://acis.mit.edu/pub/acisCtl-arch-v2.0.pdf

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

  ... Answered user question about analyzing stowed ACIS background data.

  ...  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 status of time and temperature dependent CTI correction, central node gain droop, and contamination.

  ...  Supported annual thermal WG and mission planning constraints WG briefing.

  ...  Supported planning telecon for the next IACHEC meeting in spring of 2020.  Submitted summary of IACHEC 2019 Detectors and Background Working Group activities for the next newsletter.

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

  ...  Answered CXC SDS questions on calibration of CTI correction.


4.  OCC Support

4.1 Use of MIT/ACIS EGSE at OCC

  ...  Continued support and maintenance of ACIS EGSE software and hardware at the Wayside OCC.  Performed monthly check of all ACIS hardware and software at the OCC.  Continued to work on refinements to the security configuration of MIT EGSE.

  ...  Updated documentation for use of ACIS equipment at the OCC to include changes between Hampshire St and Wayside.

4.2 Generation of commands for ACIS observations

  ...  Completed ACIS ops testing of CXCDS 10.8, including SACGS, load review scripts, and the MIT processing pipeline.  Submitted test report.

  ...  Updated script used to copy new ACIS tables to real-time monitoring machines.  Added new machines at Wayside, removed Hampshire machines.  Also updated related  documentation on SI mode creation.

  ...  Worked with USINT to fix incorrect optional chip order in a GO observation.

  ...  Reviewed JUN1019A command load.  Reviewed JUN1019 preliminary schedule.  Reviewed JUN1019 final OR lists.  Reviewed JUN1719, JUN1019, and JUN2419 LTS OR lists.

  ...  Assigned 8 SI modes.  Dropped chips from 1 ObsID.

  ...  Checking on automated processes associated with SACGS.