ACIS Instrument Support - Monthly Progress Report for August 2020

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).


2.  Engineering

2.1 Instrument hardware engineering performance

  ...  Continue to monitor long term ACIS instrument performance.  Reviewed trends in engineering data for the past 60 days; no unexpected trends were seen.

  ...  The EEPROM checksum was verified in the AUG1020A 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-on August 18.  While most of the MIT team is still working from home and cannot physically access MIT buildings, two key persons do now have permission to access the EU space.  Functional testing was successful.
  

2.2 Flight software maintenance

  ...  ACIS flight software patch G-H-I (improved buscrash and new deahktrip) uploaded on January 24, 2020.  First new patch set since June 2014.  No issues to date.

  ...  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.

  ...  Continued work on developing a QEMU ACIS processor emulator.  The emulator can potentially serve as a backup for the EU and as a tool to investigate software anomalies of a rare or transient nature that would be difficult to characterize with the EU.  On-going development involves continuing bug fixes, and starting a revision of the BEP emulator's telemetry architecture to fix issues when switching between BEPs A and B.  Wrote and teseted S/W pixel generator.  Adapted ACIS FSW patch tests to run on the emulator.

  ...  Continued team review of ACIS Flight Software User's Guide using the new version B released in April.  Continued section on changing the system configuration including DEA interface and video board power, video board settings, and CCD voltage settings.

  ...  Ordered new iMac workstation to replace failing hardware and support ACIS software support activities.

2.3 Instrument science performance

  ...  Supported response and recovery to the HRC side-A electronics anomaly.  Confirmed ACIS health and safety.  Ran a CAP to power on three FEPs which keeps ACIS electronics from getting too cold and reduces temperature swings over long idle periods.  Supported HRC briefings and activities including review of HRC CAPs.  Prepared briefing on ACIS operation in the absence of the HRC anti-co shield.

  ...  Participated in monthly ACIS operations meetings.  Discussed the ongoing HRC anomaly and thoughts on running ACIS in the absence of the HRC anti-co shield radiation monitor.

  ...  Continued daily quick-look processing of ACIS telemetry and maintained Web interface to ACIS real-time data.  Corrected problem with times associated with May safe mode.

  ...  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 status of tgain, scheduling of ECS measurements during the science orbit, contamination calibration, and analysis of Cas A observations.

  ...  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 Wayside OCC.  

4.2 Generation of commands for ACIS observations

  ...  Began preparing for cycle 22 global SI mode assignment.  Checked MP priority list for configuration and chip drop problems.  Pre-checked the full list to find the issues ahead of time.

  ...  Commented on the USINT letter to observers for cycle 22.

  ...  Worked with USINT to fix problems with frame-time in an observation.

  ...  Worked with USINT on finding an appropriate subarray for an observation.

  ...  Answered USINT question on aimpoints and their position on the CCD.

  ...  Continued working on contingency plans for how to update the ACIS ruleset and ACIS tables in the event of a FEP failure.

  ...  Reviewed AUG0920U and AUG1720A command loads.  Reviewed AUG3120 and AUG2420 LTS OR lists, and AUG2420 preliminary schedule.

  ...  Assigned 6 SI modes.  Dropped chips from 2 ObsIDs.

  ...  Checking on automated processes associated with SACGS.