Minutes of the 6^th^ Hinode Monthly Meeting

April 25-26, 2007

The 6^th^ Hinode Monthly Meeting was chaired by Prof. Watanabe and held
on April 26, 2007 at 8:00 AM (JST) at NAOJ. The Agenda was circulated by
Prof Watanabe and was accepted.

1.  Instrument Status

    i.  SOT: Tarbell reported that the new software to control the FPP
        had been uploaded and is working as expected. However it is more
        difficult to use than expected. They have now observed all the
        lines and are concentrating on Stokes profiles and plus a fixed
        wavelength at H-alpha. In the coming months they will try the
        other lines that are selectable by the NFI. The team believes
        that it will be possible to make observations during the eclipse
        season; however they still don't know how long it will take to
        reach thermal equilibrium after each eclipse.

    ii. XRT: DeLuca reported that filter wheel #1 was ongoing; however
        they had been able to move the filter wheel, in the stepping
        mode, to all positions in both directions at the nominal
        operating temperature. This appears to rule out problems with
        the encoder. They had planned to start testing closed loop
        operations earlier this week but had an upload problem and this
        is now scheduled for next Monday (April 30). The source of the
        problem is still unknown however the current temperature is 5-6
        degrees C warmer than the temperature when the sticking problems
        first occurred. During the eclipse season the heaters will be
        turned on to maintain or perhaps slightly raise the wheel
        temperature.

    iii. EIS: Harra reported that the results of the testing of the slit
         slot assembly to determine whether it could be operated during
         SAA passage had been presented to NASA. Although the general
         conclsions were positive the meeting resulted in a number of
         action items that need to be addressed before proceeding to
         operations. A date for implementing the changes has not yet
         been set.

    iv. Spacecraft: Shimizu noted that the current prediction for the
        start of the eclipse season is May 8. However the Sun will be
        obscured by the Earth's tmophere starting two days earlier.
        During eclipses the spacecraft is controlled only by the gyros
        that sense velocity not position from which a drift rate is
        estimated. The transition to gyros only will occur moments after
        the loss of the signal from the sun sensors and will be
        accompanied by a jump in the pointing direction that could be as
        large as 40 arcsec but will usually be less. There will also be
        some deformation of the structure that is expected to result in
        misalignments of 6 arcsec or less. The control software may bgin
        to sense these affects as early as May 2^nd^. DeLuca asked how
        long after the start of the eclipse should the observers wait to
        avoid the jump before beginning observations? Shimizu responded
        that probably one minute or less. Shimizu stated that the
        orbital elements will have margin built in to allow for more
        severe effects than expected. He also predicted that the longest
        eclipse will be 19.4 minutes.

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1.  Monthly Planning

> Watanabe reported the opening of the Monthly Event Page. Since this
> occurred during the "turmoil" of the SUMER campaign it will benefit
> from the establishment of some general rules that are planned for the
> next month. Once these are in place it is expected to be more widely
> used. The page can be found at:
>
> <http://www.isas.jaxa.jp/home/solar/hinode_op/hinode_monthly_events.php>

2.  Discussion of Existing Proposals

> HOP 9 Watanabe asked what kind of support were we able to provide to
> Engvold? Berger responded that there two filaments were observed on
> the disk by SOT in H-alpha and Ca H. However the ground based results
> were poor as a result of bad weather. This HOP is now closed.
>
> SUMER Campaign: Culhane reported that all but 5 of the 32 studies were
> addressed by EIS. The campaign was judged a success but providing this
> level of support was not without its challenges. These included:

i)  Disputes between ground based observers,

ii) Late changes to the planning schedule

iii) Daily decisions were not always made known to everyone.

> Watanabe believed it was essential to have a single channel for
> communications. He also wished to establish a set of ground rules,
> namely:

1.  Establish detailed scheduling at the Monthly Meeting (MM).

No decisions on real time schedule before this time.

> 2\. Collaborations with ground based observatories need a schedule
> that they can rely on.
>
> 3\. The observing hours should be announced for collaboration with
> multiple spacecraft.
>
> 4\. When collaborations with multiple facilities are planned the
> Hinode planning team should deal with only one member of the
> consortium, who would in turn coordinate all the activities of the
> consortium.
>
> 5\. When studies are approved at the MM a Point of Contact should be
> named to act as the interface between the Hinode team and the external
> observer. The POC's function is to help the external investigator with
> his proposal, field questions and to shield the COs from having to
> answer lots of questions.
>
> 6\. Establish a firm baseline that non-core proposals need to be
> submitted at least 3 months before the time they are to be implemented
> (Culhane).
>
> 7\. The external proposals need to have been well thought through and
> provide adequate detail to understand the operational needs. An
> example or template would be helpful (Berger).
>
> N.B. XRT has an observation request form that is available at:
>
> <http://solar.physics.montana.edu/Hinode/XRT/>
>
> and EIS has a planning tool at:
>
> <http://msslxr.mssl.ucl.ap.uk:8080/SolarB/PlanningToolGuide.jsp>
>
> 8\. External requests should in the first instance be limited to no
> more than 12 hours per day. This is to allow for more than one
> external request per day and time to perform the core program. N.B. In
> this respect SUMER was a special case due to its serious lifetime
> concerns and is unlikely to be repeated.

A participant at ISAS stated that Dave Williams was preparing a set of
instructions that fit these requirements and might be able to put
together a handout for the Hawaii SPD.

3.  New Proposals

    i.  HOP 7: Ulysses Quadrature, SOHO CDS & UVCS plus Ulysses; Culhane
        is the POC. The sun is cooperating as an active region is
        appearing that should be in an ideal position near the West
        limb. Time period 7 -- 20 May. Since this requires limb pointing
        Shimizu was asked whether there were additional constraints
        because this would be at the start of the eclipse season. He
        answered that there were no additional constraints. Julio
        delZahn (sp?) is the investigation PI.

    ii. HOP 8: STEREO: Mariska is the POC. They are requesting up to 5
        hours per day of limb pointing observations if the Sun remains
        quiet. In the event that the activity that is appearing at the
        limb continues its passage they may change their target. Since
        they will be observing continuously there appears to be little
        conflict with HOP 7. Mariska was asked to have the PI Plunkett
        discuss any requirements he may have for SOT and XRT with their
        PIs.

    iii. HOP 10: Joint observations (EIS, SOT, XRT) with the Norikura
         Observatory for non-thermal line broadening. The investigators
         (Hara, Suematsu, Ichimoto) are all members of the core team and
         Hara is assigned as the POC. The joint observations will take
         place from mid-June through the end of July.

    iv. HOP 12: Cooperative observations with the Hida Observatory to
        study emerging flux, cool jets and Ellerman bombs. The study is
        led by Shibata (Kyoto). The request is for two observational
        periods 28 May to June 3 and from 6 August to 12 August and the
        observing time each day would start at 2100 UT and run for a
        duration of six hours. Since this coincides with the eclipse
        season if there are problems a backup period would be from 13 to
        23 August. Watanabe will act as the POC.

    v.  HOP 13: 1. DeForest: Hinode Collaboration with SHAZAM-P was
        introduced by Sekki who is assigned to be the POC.The request
        involves SOT observations -- g-band bright point, chromospheric
        heating and magnetic field - during the period of 25--29 June,
        between 1400-2000 UT. He is interested in quiet sun observations
        near disk center. Because Hinode is in the eclipse season he
        will be happy with intermittent support for periods of 10-30
        minutes. He is also requesting support from MDI and TRACE.

4.  Other Business

    Shimizu asked for more frequent co-alignment observations during the
    eclipse season, starting on May 9^th^ and for a duration of
    approximately 10 days to study the effect of the rapid changes of
    temperature during the night time periods caused by the eclipse.
    These observations may continue less frequently throughout the
    summer. DeLuca suggested that XRT may have to go G-band for this.

    The 7^th^ Monthly Meeting will be held on April 24 at 7:00 AM JST
    and on April 23 in the US and the UK at the usual times.

    John Davis, April 27, 2007

    **Attendees:** Shibasaki, Watanabe, Sekii, Davis, Shimizu, Sakao,
    Cobb, Doschek, Mariska, Tarbell, Berger, Hoffman, Shine, DeLuca,
    Golub, Webber Harra, Culhane, Sakurai, Brooks, Berger, Shimizu and
    others.