ACIS Instrument Support - Monthly Progress Report for March 2023

1.  ACIS Characterization

1.3 Monitor scientific on-orbit performance of ACIS

  ...  Due to high radiation environment, the ACIS team recommended a shutdown of science observing on March 15. The ObsID 23880 just before the shutdown lost data due to telemetry saturation.  This observation used six CCDs with very faint mode, which is not a recommended configuration for exactly this reason.

  ...  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).

  ... Continued study of ACIS quiescent particle background time variability by expanding the dataset to include not just stowed ECS data, but also all science data taken with standard ACIS configurations.  Presented preliminary results at HEAD meeting.

  ...  Started collected data for the Chandra Quarterly in May.

2.  Engineering

2.1 Instrument hardware engineering performance

  ...  Continue to monitor long term ACIS instrument performance.  Engineering trending over the past 60 days is nominal.

  ...  The EEPROM checksum was verified in the MAR0623A loads. Will continue to run monthly.  MIT telemetry processing will automatically check the results and send out an alert if the checksum is unexpected.

  ...  Continued weekly physical audit of the ACIS Engineering Unit lab. 

2.2 Flight software maintenance

  ...  Command packets for the ACIS FSW patch H-J-K are in development. This patch load includes three new standard patches and an update to an existing patch, which fix bugs and improves the ACIS response to unexpected shutdowns and BEP crashes. 

  ...  ACIS flight software patch G-I-J (improved TXings) uploaded on August 11, 2022.  First new patch set since January 2020.  No issues to date.

  ...  We continue to monitor threshold crossing rates. Threshold crossing rates are dropping and a new set of TXing parameters were uploaded on Feb 10, 2023. The previous parameter update was September 12, 2022.  

  ...  Began a study of bias map creation times using archival data.

2.3 Instrument science performance

  ...  Participated in monthly ACIS operations meeting.  Discussed the radiation environment, telemetry saturation behavior during high radiation, and the next ACIS FSW patch.

  ...  After OS update, worked to get ACIS science telemetry monitoring restarted.

  ...  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 CDO question about observing an optical bright star.

  ...  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

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

  ...  Participating in planning the program for the next in-person IACHEC meeting in April. 


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.  Restarted both EGSE machines routinely.


4.2 Generation of commands for ACIS observations

  ...  Continued training of MIT ACIS team member on ACIS ops on-duty tasks.  Built new SI mode and installed new ACIS tables at the OCC, provided feedback on reviews, created new TXing parameter commands.  First week on-call was March 20-26.

  ...  Created, tested, and installed a new set of ACIS TXING parameter update commands for future updates.

  ...  Created, tested, and installed three new SI modes for allow for more thermal flexibility when running long external calibration source runs during spacecraft safing actions.

  ...  Updates to command generation procedures are underway, in response to changes to the MKI network and the interface to the ACIS EU.  Successful second test run.

  ...  Worked with USINT on remaining problematic ACIS configurations in cycle 24.

  ...  Reviewed MAR1323A, MAR2723A command loads; MAR0623, MAR1323, MAR2723 final OR lists; MAR2023, MAR2723(x2) preliminary schedules; and MAR2023, MAR2723, APR1023, APR0323 LTS OR lists.

  ...  Checking on automated processes associated with SACGS.