ACIS Instrument Support - Monthly Progress Report for November 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 NOV090B load.   Will continue to run monthly.  MIT telemetry processing will automatically check the results and send out an alert if the checksum is unexpected.

  ...  Reviewed the PSMC pre-flight acceptance package and schematics to determine DPA and DEA current limits and trip points.

  ...  Reviewed draft memo on raising the 1DEAMZT yellow and red high limits.

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, indicating the end of solar minimum.

  ...  Continued work on developing and testing a QEMU ACIS processor emulator. 
On-going QEMU ACIS emulator development, involving:
 -- Enable optional enable/disable of groups of debugging messages using QEMU's "trace" feature
 -- Continued bug fixes
 -- Examined use of buildbot continuous integration system for lightweight automated builds
 
  ...  Continued team review of ACIS Flight Software User's Guide using the new version B released in April.  Completed memory loading commands, including flight software patches.

2.3 Instrument science performance

  ...  Continued daily quick-look processing of ACIS telemetry and maintained Web interface to ACIS real-time data.  Installing/porting software on new 64-bit Linux replacement computer.  Pipeline running in parallel on old and new hardware for comparison.

  ...  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 updates on contamination calibration and time-dependent gain including energy scaling and use of the Au-L lines.

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

  ...  Answered pipeline scientist question on bias map repair and whether MIT recommends any changes to CXC procedures.  (We don't)

  ...  Participated virtual IACHEC meeting, directed at a more general interest audience.  MIT members provided Zoom hosting and technical support.


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.  Remotely checked on status.  Updated instructions to include how to remotely screen share with EGSE.

  ...  Supported ACIS ops coverage during OCC network outage by having the on-duty OC access ACIS EGSE while on the phone with MIT Ops.

4.2 Generation of commands for ACIS observations

  ...  Reviewed NOV0920A and NOV3020A command loads.  Reviewed NOV2320 (x2) and DEC1420 LTS OR lists; NOV0920, NOV1620, and DEC0720 preliminary schedules; and NOV0920, NOV3020, and DEC0720 final OR lists.

  ...  Built and tested one new SI mode for cycle 22.

  ...  Assigned 17 SI modes.  Dropped chips from 6 ObsIDs.

  ...  Checking on automated processes associated with SACGS.