STATUS:
11.01.08
Spacecraft Status
On October 13th the AIM spacecraft’s computer sent the spacecraft into a “safehold” state. The instruments were automatically turned off and the spacecraft pointed the solar arrays towards the sun. After a thorough review by the LASP mission operations team and Orbital Science Corp spacecraft engineers, no problems could be found with any of the spacecrafts’s subsystems and steps began to recover from the safehold condition. Recovery proceeded without incident and by October 18, the spacecraft was back in the science operations mode. All spacecraft subsystems and science instruments are functioning nominally.
Instrument Status
SOFIE turned off due to AIM SAFE Hold on Oct 13, 2008. SOFIE turned back on and returned to its operational state following SAFE Hold recovery on Oct 17, 2008.
Validation and data release for Release 1 continue without issues. The entire SOFIE data set was processed using the latest version of the Release 2 software (version 1.02). This data is currently being evaluated by the AIM science team. Based on an initial review of this data, refinements to the version 1.02 software are in progress. Version 1.02 is planned to be available to the public by the end of November 2008.
Recent analysis using the new SOFIE V1.02 temperatures, shows that SOFE T & H2O can be used to predict the altitude and occurrence frequency of the ice layer. However, the mass density is predicted to be 2-3 times more than observed.
SOFIE smoke measurements are in excellent agreement with radar observations of meteoric influx from the south pole, but do not indicate the sumer smoke void that recent model results show.
CIPS came out of the spacecraft safe-hold in excellent condition and is taking
data in the Southern Hemisphere awaiting the beginning of the cloud season.
CDE has returned to normal operations after the safehold. The thresholds have been updated to minimize the autonomy triggers.
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