High-Gain Antenna Test is Complete

SDO completed the Failed High-Gain Antenna Simulation and rolled back to its normal orientation at 1900 UTC (3:00 p.m. ET) last Wednesday. Here is a short video using the Where's SDO? images showing that day in the life of SDO. Watch the Z-axis for the flip.

Many thanks to the FOT and instrument team member who planned and executed this test. We learned a lot!

High-Gain Antenna Test Continues

The SDO Team continues running the high-gain antenna (HGA) test. We are pretending that the “bottom” HGA has stopped working and we are running the spacecraft upside down to stay in contact with the ground. There has been no problem with the HGAs, but we need to keep the SDO Team thinking how to handle these problems before they happen.

As you can see in the picture, the FOT is using Camilla as a reminder what roll angle SDO is at. Currently at 153.7°, tomorrow SDO will roll to 180°. The test will end on April 25 at 1900 UTC (3 pm ET).

As the test progresses, the software to correct the orientation of the near-realtime images continues to be improved. By the end of the test all of the images will be correct!

On-Orbit Testing of SDO, March 28–April 25, 2018

SDO uses two high-gain antennas (HGAs) on the spacecraft to maintain continuous contact with the SDO ground station in New Mexico. Should one of those antennas fail we would have to roll the spacecraft to a variety of position angles during the year to keep the remaining HGA in contact with the ground station. The SDO Team will be testing the procedures needed to run SDO on a single HGA from March 28, 2018, to April 25, 2018.

During the test the roll angle of SDO will vary from 0 to 180 degrees. Near-realtime images from SDO may appear with the incorrect position angle, similar to what happens during an instrument calibration. To ensure you have correctly aligned science data, please use the exported images from the JSOC or the SSW IDL routines aia_prep.pro and hmi_prep.pro. If you use other software for data analysis, make sure you properly account for the value of the CROT2 when preparing the data.

Remember: This is only a Test!"

You Never Miss Them 'TIl They're Gone!

I had forgotten how nice it was to see the Sun each morning in all of the different ways SDO provides.

It took longer then we expected, but as of the end of the Friday work day, SDO is in science mode and all three instruments are returning science data. AIA is currently taking images with the nominal 8 images every 12 second program but it is running an older version of flight software that is affecting the Image Status Packet. We plan to leave the system in this configuration over the weekend.

It's been a long week for the SDO team and I hope they can return Monday ready to fix the remaining issues.

Thanks to all who helped SDO to return to operations.

Dean

HMI has returned to science mode

The HMI operators restarted HMI and science data is flowing. 

Many thanks to the LMSAL team! 

 HMI has thrown an error. The HMI operations team is working to bring the instrument back online. No data will be available until the instrument is fixed.

DDS offline, Back online at 0130 UTC (9 p.m. ET)

The SDO DDS went offline at about 2247 UTC (6:47 p.m. ET). The SDO Flight Operations Team is looking into the outage.

UPDATE: As of 0130 UTC (9 p.m. ET Tuesday) the SDO DDS in back online and delivering science data to the SOCs. All data downlinked while the DDS was offline will be sent by retransmissions.

SDO is Back in Science Mode

SDO returned to science mode at 1534 UTC (11:34 a.m. ET). The high-gain antennas were configured for the remainder of day today through the high-gain antenna handover tonight. The HMI roll maneuver will wait until we understand what happened last night.

Many thanks to the FOT and ACS teams for recovering SDO and getting the data flowing again!

SDO is Almost Back to Normal

SDO is now pointing at the Sun with one high-gain antenna returning science data. The other high-gain antenna is pointing in the wrong direction and engineers are working on the best way to move it to the correct direction. Science data is flowing to the SOCs but interruptions may occur as the observatory is returned to the proper state.

SDO Offline

Last night at 0551 UTC (0152 a.m. ET), as SDO began the scheduled roll calibration maneuver, the ACS went into Sun-acquisition mode. SDO remains in that mode while the engineers look for the cause. The spacecraft is stable and in contact with the SDO MOC. Science data is not being taken at this time. Updates will be posted when available.

Yesterday's Maneuver and Today's Weather in Las Cruces

Yesterday at 1950 UTC (2:50 p.m. ET) SDO did Momentum Maneuver #21. Science data may not be available for 20 minutes on either side of the thruster firing.

There is heavy snow at the White Sands Complex near Las Cruces, NM. About 6" of snow has fallen so far. Snow can cause the Ka-band science downlink to fade, and it completely faded at 1815 UTC (1:15 p.m. ET) and has not yet returned at 1915 UTC (2;15 p.m. ET). The S-band link is not affected by the snow and is still being received. When the snowfall abates we will again receive the science data.

Update 23-Jan-2015: Normal science data flow was restarted at 2204 UTC yesterday (5:04 p.m. ET). Many thanks to the people who cleaned the snow off the antennas!

Repairs are Complete, JSOC is Live!

The fiber optics cable is repaired and data is flowing to the JSOC. It's good to see the Sun!

EVE MEGS-A and SAM have been Turned Off

I am very sad to say that SDO has decided to turn off EVE MEGS-A and EVE SAM. The EVE MEGS-A/SAM instrument has had a failure in the CCD electronics. The EVE team is looking at ways to start them again, but we do not have a date for restarting the instruments.

The discovery of late-phase flares depended on the linking of MEGS-A spectra and AIA images. The SAM images were made by a pinhole camera, but had a remarkable accuracy in determining the location of flares.

MEGS-B, MEGS-P, and ESP are working as designed.

This letter from Tom Woods, the EVE PI, was sent out yesterday.

Hi EVE team,

We're sad to report that EVE MEGS-A / SAM data stream has ended on Monday May 26, 2014 due to a power anomaly for MEGS-A CCD electronics. With the SAM images being from MEGS-A CCD, both SAM solar X-ray images and MEGS-A spectra (6-37 nm) are not available now. The MEGS-A and SAM data from May 1, 2010 to May 26, 2014 will remain available from the EVE web site ( http://lasp.colorado.edu/home/eve/ ).

All the other EVE instruments are working well, ESP, MEGS-B, and MEGS-P. We¹ll be working with the EVE science team to optimize the EVE observations with those instruments.

HMI is Back Online

HMI has returned to normal operations. The HMI team at LMSAL and Stanford will closely monitor the instrument to verify its performance. We don't anticipate any more outages. Data is flowing to the JSOC but it will take a while to prime the pump and produce magnetograms and Dopplergrams.

Thanks to Jake, Rock, Zoe, Gary, and the other people who brought HMI back!

HMI is Down, WIll Return Later Today

Last night the HMI instrument rebooted and stopped producing science data. The HMI team has made sure the instrument is safe by rebooting and testing HMI. They will restart the science sequencer later today. HMI data will not be available until the sequences are restarted.

Many thanks to the LMSAL and Stanford people who worked through the night to reboot and test HMI!

Brief data stream outage on April 16

We are experiencing a system outage that is interrupting the automatic web updating of SDO images. The spacecraft is still fine and is collecting data as usual, and no SDO data has been lost. The outage is on the ground and is only temporary. We apologize for any inconvenience, and we thank you for your patience.

Update: The image processing queue is catching up, we should be back to normal in a couple of hours. (2:00PM EDT 16 April)

Update #2:  Everything is back to normal.  Again, sorry for the delay.  (4:40pm EDT  16 April)

Data Pipeline is Down

The SDO Data Pipeline has had an anomaly and is currently off-line. It should be back up soon.

Data Handling Problems are Fixed

The data handling problems have been fixed and data is flowing normally.

Some Images are Delayed

Due to problems at the SDO ground station some HMI data was not being transmitted correctly this weekend. Another anomaly at Stanford has introduced further problems. Once the computers are all fixed and talking to each other the data flow will return to normal.

Repairs are Complete and Site is Online

Thanks to Joe Gurman for installing the new RAID and moving the SDO website onto the new drives.
The Sun is looking beautiful today!

SDO Data Site Under Repair, X-flare Erupts

The GSFC SDO website is having a disk replaced and should be back online tomorrow. Many thanks to Joe and Joe for installing the new drives. Repairs at the SDO ground station in New Mexico also delayed delivery of data to the SOCs in Palo Alto and Boulder. Both systems are repaired and delivery of the science data has resumed.

Of course, trouble with the data system means the Sun will do something interesting. An X1.1 flare erupted late yesterday (UT, 7 pm ET). Here is the EVE irradiances showing a peak in the top frame at 2300 UTC. The flare was in AR 11515, very close to the receding limb of the Sun, and in the southern hemisphere.