POLAR Telecon Agenda for August 26th, 2005

Agenda:

0. Upcoming Polar Telecon

1. Operations:

2. MFE Data Processing Status

3. Senior Review Proposal

4. Resident Archives

5. CEPPAD Science Report

 

0.  Upcoming Polar Telecons

Friday, August 26th, 2005

4 pm ET, 3 pm CT, 2 pm MT, 1 pm PT

PIs and their designated representatives will be telephoned at their usual numbers.

Other participants may call in at: 1-800-857-2748, password POLAR TELECON

(Leader: John Sigwarth)

 

The web site for the final agenda will be:

http://pwg.gsfc.nasa.gov/polar/telecons/2005Aug26/

 

Future Polar Telecons

Friday, September 23, 2005

Future Telecon Science Discussion Schedule

[Errors/omissions/preferences to: nicola.fox@jhuapl.edu

September 23 2005: TIDE

October 2005: PIXIE

November 2005: SEPS

January 2006: UVI

February 2005: MDI

March 2006: CAMMICE

April 2006: PWI

May 2006: VIS

June 2006: EFI

July 2006: TIMAS

August 2006: Hydra

September 2006:  MFE

October 2006: CEPPAD

 

1. Operations

If you have any concerns about Polar operations, please contact Nicky Fox (nicola.fox@jhuapl.edu)

 

Eclipse Operations

 

The Fall eclipse season began August 19, 2005 and ends September 10, 2005.  The longest eclipses are 100 minutes.  Looking at Polar's eclipse performance last year, as well as in 1999 when we experienced shadows of comparable duration, it appears that only PWI should be powered off.  In the past we have powered off PWI just before each orbit's eclipse entry and powered on right after eclipse end.  PWI remains powered for the majority of each orbit during the shadow season to allow EFI access to Search Coil data.  PWI commanding is done by the FOT from the Stored Command Table.  FOT recommends using this power cycling method again.

In addition, PIXIE, SEPS and CAMMICE/MICS will remain powered off throughout the eclipse season as they are not operational.

 

POLAR Fall eclipse season
August 19 (Day 231) - Sep 10 (Day 253), 2005

PWI power off: 5 min. before penumbra entry.
        power on: 5 min. after penumbra exit

 

A full list of eclipse periods can be found here

 

Sun Angle Maneuver

The next Polar maneuver is tentatively scheduled for November 14, 2005.

 

2. MFE Data Processing Status

 

3. The 2006 Senior Review Proposal

 

WE ARE MAKING EVERY EFFORT TO STAY ON SCHEDULE TO ENSURE THAT WE CAN DELIVER THE HIGHEST QUALITY PRODUCT SO PLEASE RESPOND TO REQUESTS FOR INPUT IN A TIMELY FASHION.

 

The red team met on August 25, 2005 and we would like to extend our thanks to the team for the very thorough review process that they implemented. Overall, they were complimentary about the proposal and suggested a number of improvements which can be made. The first action item is to reorganize the proposal to better address the criteria against which we are to be evaluated. Specifically:

 

1.     Relevance to S3C and the Great Observatory

2.     Impact of scientific results as evidenced by citations, press releases etc.

3.     Spacecraft and instrument health

4.     Productivity and vitality of the science team (e.g. publishable research, training of younger scientists, education and public outreach)

5.     Promise of future impact and productivity (due to uniqueness of orbit and location, solar cycle phase, etc.)

6.     Broad accessibility and usability of the data

 

One major issue raised by the red team was our target audience. The Senior Review panel will be made up of scientists with a wide variety of interests, including solar and heliospheric. We need to “de-specialize” our verbiage in order to convey the importance of Polar observations in the broader context of S3C science.

 

We will be reorganizing the proposal over the next few days and making the preliminary edits requested by the red team. This will be completed by August 31, 2005. At this time a number of authors who have contributed to the proposal will be sent specific tasks to complete. The deadline for these inputs will be September 7th. On September 12th, the final draft of the proposal will be circulated for comment. The deadline for receipt of edits to the proposal will be September 19th – this will allow ample time for formatting and printing to ensure we make the October 5th due date.

 

Data availability

 

One of the appendices in the proposal contains a list of members of the community to whom we have provided Polar data. The red team was very encouraging of this material and we have sent emails to each of the PIs and also a general request for inputs via the SPA newsletter. This information may not be easily available but it is critical that we make every attempt to show what a great job we are doing in the community.

 

A very important point to consider is that there is a separate committee which has been convened to investigate the availability of each mission dataset. Members of this committee may contact you directly to inquire about the acquisition of some of your high resolution data products. It is imperative that you consider all data requests to be of the highest priority. Refusing to supply data on the grounds that they are too complex for the requestor to handle is an enormous black eye for the mission as a whole.

 

Education and Public Outreach

 

The E/PO program was judged to be first class and the section only requires some reorganization and compression. This is a last call for the few remaining teams who have not yet responded to the request for inputs.

 

Polar Senior Review Development Schedule:

May 6: Polar PI telecon

May 6-May 13: Skeleton Draft

May 13-20: writing assignments, formation of Red Team

May 23-27: AGU meeting in New Orleans

June 1-24: Draft 1 (circulated 23rd), Polar PI Telecon 24th)

June 27-July 1: GEM meeting in Santa Fe

July 5-11: Draft 2 (circulated 11th, Polar PI Telecon 15th)

July18-29: IAGA meeting in Toulouse, France

July 15-August 5: Draft 3 (circulated August 4th, Polar PI Telecon 5th)

August 8-14: Draft 4

August 16: Draft 4 sent to Red Team

August 25: Red Team Review

 

August 26: Polar PI Telecon

August 26-31: Draft 5 (circulated Aug 31st)

September 1-7: Inputs from selected authors

September 12-19: Draft 6 to PI team for last review/editing

September 19: DEADLINE FOR INPUTS TO SENIOR REVIEW PROPOSAL

September 23: Polar PI telecon

September 23-28: final formatting, proofing

September 28-October 2: Printing and delivery

 

4. Resident Archives

NASA/HQ has indicated that there may be a small amount of funding available for after the end of mission for the maintenance of Resident Archives of the data at the PI institutions.  This would provide a small amount of money for maintaining the hardware that serves up data and a fraction of an FTE to keep the hardware working.  In this round of senior reviews, this applies especially to Polar as it nears the end of its MODA life.  Chuck Holmes will be asking for input from the Polar mission in the form of a short white paper. 

 

This topic was also raised by the red team as a very important item to be addressed in the Senior Review proposal. How are the data to be archived, in what final form, and how will we support the Virtual Observatories? A short paragraph needs to be added to the proposal containing the Polar plan for these issues.

 

5.  CEPPAD Science Report

Link