STATUS:
08.15.08
Spacecraft Status
All AIM spacecraft subsystems continue to perform well. The spacecraft instruments saw the solar eclipse that occurred on Aug 1. The battery state-of-charge dropped to 72% on this orbit (nominal is ~75%), which was very close to the predicted 70% value. The new SOFIE boresight pointing was verified and the sun is centered in the field-of-view as expected. The uplink receiver bitlock was sporadic during the week but we were able to upload all the necessary commands that were scheduled.
Instrument Status
SOFIE continues to operate nominally. The new spacecraft pointing offset that ran between Aug 11 and Aug 13, 2008 placed the FOV within 2-3 of arcsecs of the center of the sun, as expected. The new pointing offsets have been added for continuing spacecraft maneuver planning.
The latest SOFIE data was validated. One event was not released to the public because of issues related to the solar eclipse that occurred on August 1. Testing of the Release 2 code is underway.
Analysis of SOFIE meteoric smoke measurements continues. Measurements from band 2 during 13 arcmin events were examined for smoke signatures, and the results appear to
be consistent with smoke. The channel 2 dV extinctions were found to provide a good measure of Rayleigh extinction, and the measurements are generally within 10% of calculated values based on SOFIE densities.
CIPS continues to operate nominally. All four cameras are returning excellent data.
The CDE Level 2B has finished processing and will be checked and analyzed. All operations remain nominal.
New Publications
> See publications for two new SOFIE papers by lead authors Gordley and Hervig.
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