National Aeronautics and Space Administration
Marshall Space Flight Center
Hinode (Solar-B)
Hinode Operation Plans (HOPs)
HOPs List & Guidance
HOPs Coordination Calendar
Information Required in Submitted Proposals
Encouraged Observations from All Proposers
Information about the Hinode Instruments
Guideline for Hinode Scientific Operations
Deadline for Submission
Planning for Hinode operations is performed on a three month cycle that is updated monthly. At the end of every month a monthly meeting is held to confirm the observations for the coming month and to lay out the broad objectives for the second and third months.
The cut-off for consideration is the 14th day of each month. For example, requests for observations received between the 15th of June and the 14th of July will be presented and discussed at the monthly meeting held at the end of July.
It is recommended that proposers make their submissions as early as possible, so that the Science Schedule Coordinators (SSCs) have time to refine the proposals to fit the current Hinode situation.
Late submissions may be considered only exceptionally, if scheduling conflicts can be easily resolved in the operation planning meetings.
Information Required in Submitted Proposals
- Title of the proposed observation.
- Short statement describing the observation, and scientific
justification.
- This should be as short and concise as possible, but it should still contain all the key details. This statement is important because Hinode's limited data volume situation may make it necessary to modify some planned observations on some days. The Hinode team will refer to this statement when setting priorities for which observations to perform.
- Point of contact. Name and email address.
- Time period of proposed observations, if required.
- Provide the start and end dates with the reason.
- Provide the minimum number of observation days during the period.
- Provide desires and requirements for continuity of observations, for example: "three consecutive days are desired, but not required," "three consecutive days are required," or "it is not necessary for observations to be on consecutive days."
- Time window in day, if required.
- Provide the "minimum" duration with the start and end times in UT, if it is a coordinated observation with ground-based or space-based observatories.
- Specify whether any short interruptions (e.g., for ten-minute synoptics) are allowed over the observing periods.
- Target of interest.
- Clearly specify the target of interest.
- Active region, quiet Sun, on-disk, near limb, limb, polar region, etc.
- More specific description of the target, if required.
- Indicate whether it is a target of opportunity (TOO). If so, suitably describe the target.
- If a suitable target does not exist during the specified period, we may not perform the proposed observation during that period.
- Clearly specify the target of interest.
- Required Hinode instruments, and priority of observables.
- The Hinode team will take into account the stated priorities if it is necessary to make adjustments to the proposed observations to fit in the day's available telemetry, etc.
- Specify which Hinode instruments are really required for the observation.
- Specify required observables (cadence, FOV vs pixel summation,
wavelengths etc), with priorities, for the primary required Hinode
instrument(s).
- Provide rough estimate of the total data volume to be collected, if possible. See section 3 for estimating the total data collected.
- If support from non-primary Hinode instrument(s) is also desired, give a rough idea regarding preferable observables (cadence, FOV vs pixel summation, wavelengths etc).
Encouraged Observations from All Proposers
- Coordinated observations with ground-based facilities and space-borne instruments, if the period/time specification is critical.
- Coordination among more than two Hinode instuments if there is a critical time constraint to the observations, or if both instruments are required to consume significant telemetry resources.
- Observations requiring telemetry volumes which are a large percentage of the regular allocations of the instruments.
Information about the Hinode Instruments
Guideline for Hinode Scientific Operations
- Coordination among the proposal observations (HOP), core program observations, and instrument-required engineering activities, is crucial in obtaining valuable scientific data from daily observations.
- An ideal goal in scheduling is that the resource allocated for the proposal (HOP) observations is well balanced with that for core team program observations i.e. 50% core: 50% non-core. However, depending on the nature of observations, the solar activity condition and available telemetry, this ground rule is always interpreted with flexibility. For example in a typical case, two days could be fully assigned to a core program and the next two days to a HOP observation.
- The final decision for scheduling of observations will to be made
in the daily operation planning meetings (1:30 UT, Mon - Sat) through
discussions among the Chief Planner (CP), Chief Observers (CO), and
core operation team personnel. Programme planning decisions made in these
meetings are final.
- The daily data allocation can vary in unexpected ways, due to unforeseen circumstances e.g. uncertainty in compression efficiency. Also, it is sometimes necessary for one or more instruments to carry out high-priority test or engineering studies at short notice. Because the telemetry resources are limited, this means that the scheduled HOPs may have to be canceled or postponed without warning on certain days. The Hinode team will make every effort to avoid cancellations.
- When suitable solar conditions arise for a TOO study, the Hinode team may allocate more resources to such observations, rather than carrying out the scheduled HOP(s).
- It may not be possible to perform more than one or two HOPs in the same day, depending on the total data collected, internal Hinode team plans, etc. In such cases, the Hinode team may give higher priority to one HOP over others. Such determinations will be made in the monthly (once per month), weekly (on Fri), and/or daily meetings.
- As much as possible, the Hinode team will try to find scheduling solutions that result in all the Hinode instruments performing their observations simultaneously, in order to maximize scientific output. This coordination will be arranged in the weekly and daily meetings with best efforts of CP and COs.
- The scheduling procedure and HOP-planning procedure may be modified according to further experience. This document will be updated to reflect such modifications.
New Policies
New policy regarding major flare watches, target of opportunity HOPs, and synoptic/long-term study HOPs (updated on July 31, 2010)
In their last two monthly meetings, the Hinode Science Schedule
Coordinators and PI's have decided that all HOP support will be
suspended in the event of a "Major Flare Watch" being issued by the
Max Millenium Flare watch web site. If a major flare watch is called,
any HOP scheduled for support during the period of the flare watch
will be rescheduled. The target for Hinode will be the Active Region
identified for the flare watch, and the observing programs will be the
core Hinode flare observations, and the Hinode instruments will be
operated with the baseline flare programs listed on the website:
http://www.isas.jaxa.jp/home/solar/hinode_op/flare_observation/Hinode_AR_FL_obs_plan.htm
Note that details of the baseline programs are subjects to change
without notice. Alternate programs may be directed by the PI's of the
instruments. Normal HOP support will resume when the flare watch has
expired.
The Chief Planner and Chief Observers may also suspend normal HOP support if a sufficiently interesting target of opportunity (TOO) for an identified TOO HOP appears. Such targets might be a flaring active region that does not quite meet the standards for a major flare alert, a newly emerging active region, a large filament or prominence, etc. Factors to be considered in making this decision in the daily meeting include: uniqueness and priority of the normally scheduled observations, frequency of occurrence of similar TOOs, weather and seeing conditions at ground based observatories, availability of telemetry, length of time the TOO HOP has been waiting to be run, etc. When this decision is made, the COs should explain the reasons for the changes in their daily plan announcements and should refer questions about the plan to the SSCs and PIs.
Hinode also runs long term synoptic HOPs at regular intervals, such as HOPs 79, 81, 131, and 146. These HOPs may need to be rescheduled in the event of a major flare watch or other active sun conditions. HOP 79 has been updated to reflect with what "frequency" the HOP should be run and how flare watches and schedule conflicts can be addressed. HOP 81 also can be rescheduled by +/- 2-3 days to accommodate active region and flare studies. The Chief Planner and Chief Observers should refer to all the HOP descriptions for guidance on how to accommodate active sun conditions.
Points of Contact
- Chief Coordinators
Jonathan W. Cirtain (jonathan.w.cirtain (at) nasa.gov)
Tetsuya Watanabe (watanabe (at) uvlab.mtk.nao.ac.jp) - Scientific Schedule Coordinators - Instrument Specific
- Solar Optical Telescope (SOT)
Tom Berger (berger (at) lmsal.com)
Takashi Sekii (sekii (at) solar.mtk.nao.ac.jp) - X-Ray Telescope (XRT)
Leon Golub (golub (at) head.cfa.harvard.edu)
Kiyoto Shibasaki (shibasaki (at) nro.nao.ac.jp) - EUV Imaging Spectrometer (EIS)
Len Culhane (jlc (at) mssl.ucl.ac.uk )
Tetsuya Watanabe (watanabe (at) uvlab.mtk.nao.ac.jp )
John Mariska (jtmariska (at) gmail.com )
- Solar Optical Telescope (SOT)
- NASA Official: Jonathan Cirtain
- Curator: Sabrina Savage
- Page Last Updated: Friday, 05 October 2012