POLAR Telecon Agenda for June 24, 2005

Agenda:

0. Upcoming Polar Telecon

1. Operations:

2. MFE Data Processing Status

3. Senior Review

4. Senior Review Proposal

5. Polar/Hydra Science Presentation

 

0.  Upcoming Polar Telecons

Friday, June 24, 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: 1-800-857-6553, password POLAR TELECON

(Leader: John Sigwarth)

 

The web site for the final agenda will be:

http://pwg.gsfc.nasa.gov/polar/telecons/2005Jun24/

 

Future Polar Telecons

Friday, July 15, 2005

Future Telecon Science Discussion Schedule

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

June 24, 2005:  HYDRA

July 2005: MFE

Aug 2005: CEPPAD

Sep 2005: TIDE

Oct 2005: PIXIE

Nov 2005: SEPS

Jan 2005: UVI

Feb 2005: MDI

Mar 2006: CAMMICE

Apr 2006: VIS

May 2006: EFI

 

1. Operations

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

Sun Angle Maneuver

The next Polar maneuver is tentatively scheduled for 11/14/2005.

The Flight Dynamics Facility (FDF) has been working with the project office to finalize the maneuver plan for 2006. We have asked them to maximize the time spent with a sun angle above 91.6 degrees in order to attain good electric field data in the critical spring 2006 season. The proposed plan (see sun angle plot) would take Polar operations to December 2006 utilizing the remaining fuel to keep the EFI antennas out of the spacecraft shadow.

 

GTM Upsets

On Saturday, May 21 the spacecraft telemetry subsystem (GTM) suffered an upset at 141:09:04:52 UT.  As a result of the upset, the TIDE and TIMAS instrument telemetry
showed a latchup, the MFE ADC was reset, and the HYDRA EEPROM write protect flag showed an enabled state.  The GTM as well as the TIMAS, MFE and HYDRA instruments were restored during the same contact in which the anomaly was first observed. TIDE was restored to operation on May 24

 

On June 3 (DOY 154), Polar experienced a GTM upset at ~07:56:59 UTC. During the unattended support at 09:06 UTC, automation sent out numerous pages indicating a potential problem. Though the real-time file from that support was not usable, level zero processing of the playback file narrowed the time of the upset between the actual supports. The next available support with DSS-46 was started early and used to restore the telemetry via the specified recovery SOP at ~14:12 UTC . Instrument commanding was required to restore MAG ADC and to clear the HYDRA EEPROM write-protect flag. TIMAS HV was restored and will require some adjustments. TIDE was recovered on Monday June 6. 

 

A third upset of Polar's GTM (side-2) occurred at 05/165/22:14:31.  The first attempt to clear the error at 22:16:40 was successful.  This was not readily apparent due to a TPOCC ground system problem.  A second command sent at 22:23:41 was redundant.  Total data outage was 2 minutes 9 seconds.  The upset occurred during the real-time support that started at 2200 UTC on DSS-34. The TIMAS, MFE, and HYDRA instruments were affected. TIDE telemetry remained nominal.


This is the fourteenth GTM upset since November 10, 2003 - all on GTM 2 - and the seventeenth since launch.

 

Polar Tape Recorder Servo Errors

The remaining Polar tape recorder is continuing to experience servo errors.  These servo errors occur on approximately 25% of the playbacks and are always at the start of the playback.  It should be emphasized that no data has been lost from Polar due to the servo errors.  The FOT is considering switching to the redundant position encoders to see if the problem will be mitigated.  The tape recorder manufacturer has seen this problem on other missions with lifespans similar to that of Polar.  These missions have continued operation for many years after the advent of the servo errors. 

 

2. MFE Data Processing Status Update

 

3. Senior Review

NASA HQ has announced that a Senior Review will be held for operating missions, including Polar, in the sun solar system connection program.  The Senior Review will be held the week of November 14 with the proposals due the first week in October.  The first draft of the call for proposals for the Senior Review has been released and copies of the call for proposals and proposal directions were sent to the Polar team.  The Polar Senior Review Proposal will need to address the key issues identified in the strategic roadmap process and how the current and planned observations by Polar have strategic value within this context.

 

NASA HQ has indicated that there will be some budget recovery for Polar in FY2006.  This funding should be sufficient to allow continued Polar operations and data analysis well into the 2006 fiscal year.  Polar operations and data analysis after that point will be contingent on the results of the Senior Review.  The results of the Senior Review should be known early in the calendar year 2006. 

 

4. The 2006 Senior Review Proposal

The PI teams should have received a copy of the first “bare-bones” draft of the proposal for comment. Please take a careful look at the future science sections and send comments directly to the people listed below. A number of team members have been identified to add content for the second draft – these are also listed below. 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 accomplishments section is currently just a placeholder based on the content from the previous Senior Review (2003). Please take some time to add your team’s more recent achievements to this section. You can either add text directly into the document (switch on track changes or at least insert text in red) or you may send a list of your team’s accomplishments to Nicky (nicola.fox@jhuapl.edu).

We would also like to include information on how many other people use Polar data – how many SR&T, TR&T and GI grants use Polar data. Please also send that information to Nicky

Finally, there a number of Polar team members going to the GEM meeting. We would like to try to organize a mini-meeting during the week. When are people available?

 

Science Sections:

2.1 Polar radiation belt science in the 2005-2006 interval: A return to the heart of the outer zone. Lead authors: Paul O’Brien & Bern Blake (Paul.OBrien@aero.org)

Additional content: Reiner Friedel; Martin Walt

2.2 Microscale and macroscale physics of magnetic reconnection. Lead author: Karlheinz Trattner (karlheinz.j.trattner.dr@lmco.com)

Additional content: Ted Fritz; Bill Peterson; Jack Scudder

2.3 Auroral acceleration region. Lead author: Chris Russell (ctrussell@igpp.ucla.edu)

Additional content: Nelson Maynard; George Parks; Rob Pfaff

 

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 (can we get together)

 

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

June 27-July 1: GEM meeting in Santa Fe (can we get together)

 

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

 

July 15-August 5: Draft 3 (circulated August 1st, Polar PI Telecon 5th)

July18-29: IAGA meeting in Toulouse, France

 

August 6-14: Draft 4

August 15: Draft 4 sent to Red Team

August 22-23: Red Team Review

August 25: Polar PI Telecon

 

August 26-September 5: Draft 5 (circulated 5th)

 

September 12-19: Draft 6 to PI team for last review/editing, Polar telecon (16th)

September 20-26: final formatting, proofing

September 27-30: Printing and delivery

 

5. Polar/Hydra Science Presentation