ACIS Instrument Support - Monthly Progress Report for July 2024

0.  Participated in ACIS ops discussion on how TSL operation paradigm changes would work in more detail.

1.  ACIS Characterization

1.3 Monitor scientific on-orbit performance of ACIS

  ...  Due to a high radiation environment, the ACIS TXings radiation monitor trigerred a shutdown of science observing on July 23.  Shutdown was nominal.  During the shutdown, ran CAP 1749 to collect 24-hours of ECS data.

  ...  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).

  ...  Reviewed memo on the May 2024 radiation shutdown decision.

  ...  Reviewed memo on the June 2024 radiation shutdown process.

2.  Engineering

2.1 Instrument hardware engineering performance

  ...  Continue to monitor long term ACIS instrument performance. Updated the engineering monitor software on Snebulos.  Engineering trending over the past 60 days is nominal.

  ...  The EEPROM checksum was verified in the JUL0824A 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.  All audits were nominal.

2.2 Flight software maintenance

  ...  ACIS flight software patch H-J-K uploaded on September 19, 2023.  First new patch set since August 2022.  No issues to date.

  ...  Continued development of diagnostic BEP/FEP memory dump procedures.  After internal review, memo on "Preventing FEP Firmware Deadlock" released. (https://acisweb.mit.edu/pub/fepdeadlock-v1.1.pdf)  Extensive testing confirms that the only FEP memory dump that can cause deadlock (i.e. t-plane latchup), is bias maps.  Memo has suggestions for changes to the DEA/FEP diagnostic SOP.

  ...  Updated memo on Boot-From-Uplink memory dumping. (https://acisweb.mit.edu/pub/bepuplinkdump-v1.2.pdf)

  ...  We continue to monitor threshold crossing rates which have recently flattened out. The current set of TXing parameters were uploaded on May 7, 2024.

2.3 Instrument science performance

  ...  Participated in monthly ACIS operations meeting.  Discussed instrument status, CCD temperatures during perigee, focal plane temperature model underpredictions, and continuing work on BEP and FEP memory dumps.

  ...  Continued daily quick-look processing of ACIS telemetry and maintained web interface to ACIS real-time data. Completed testing of dual-factor-authentication to SAO.

  ...  Continued to publish the "annotated DOT" timeline reports.


3.  CXC Support

3.1 Provide user support

  ...  Provided input to USINT on the cycle 26 observer contact letter.

  ...  Provided comments on ACIS article for upcoming Chandra newsletter.

  ...  ACIS memo listing calibration ObsIDs and observation characteristics (ACIS Memo #165) will no longer be updated.  Functionality is replaced by web page (http://acisweb.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 response discussion group.  Discussed updates to time-dependent gain and contamination corrections, and RMFs for warm focal plane temperatures.

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

  ...  Acting as editor for IACHEC 2024 meeting report.  Starting compiling working group chair responses.

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.  Checked again after the COG reset on July 17.

4.2 Generation of commands for ACIS observations

  ...  Continued work with USINT on remaining problematic ACIS configurations in cycle 25.  Began discussion with USINT of an observation of the Crab which requires more consideration.

  ...  Reviewed AUG0524 final OR list (x2); AUG0524 preliminary schedule; and AUG1924 LTS OR list.
 
  ...  Checking on automated processes associated with SACGS.