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Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope
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1. Science/Technical Highlight (Anyone)
2. Photos (Anyone)
3. Directorate (Thomas and Dave)
3.1 Activities
NSF CA/CSA renewal
Following the August meetings with NSF regarding the renewal of the Cooperative Agreement (CA) and Cooperative Support Agreement (CSA), T. Rimmele and D. Boboltz consulted with the NSO Director on the impacts of the various plans and timelines for required NSF reports, proposals and reviews including:
The NSO Annual Progress Report (APR) for FY23, due November 2023 and the NSO Annual Program Plan for FY24, due January 2024.
A 1 (or possibly 2) year extension of the current CA/CSA for management of NSO.
Preparation of a Concept of Operations (ConOps) document and subsequent NSF external review.
Preparation of a 5-year proposal for the renewal of the CA/CSA for management of NSO.
DKIST Cycle 3 call for proposals
D. Boboltz prepared a release for Solar News notifying the community of the delayed timeline for Cycle 3 and the move to a new annual schedule for DKIST that includes an extended winter engineering and maintenance period. This release is being reviewed internally.
SOLARNET meeting
T. Rimmele attended the SOLARNET Congress “Sun in Science and Society”, September 11-15, 2023 in Venice/Mestre (Italy) and presented an overview of the status of DKIST.
Boulder Solar Day
T. Rimmele and D. Boboltz along with other DKIST staff members attended Boulder Solar Day, September 29 at the High Altitude Observatory in Boulder. T. Schad and D. Kuridze presented recent results from DKIST.
AURA Solar Observatory Council (SOC) meeting preparations
T. Rimmele prepared a DKIST overview talk for the SOC meeting and D. Boboltz prepared a talk on the DKIST Data Center with input from B. Tawa and A. Davey.
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DKIST operations carried forward approximately $28.16M in unencumbered funds into FY 2023 from previous years. A total of $11.9M in new funding has been obligated by NSF thus far in FY 2023 for a total funding amount of $40.06M.
Financial status of
DKIST operational expenditures for August 2023 were $3.05M
Total YTD expenditures for DKIST operations are $26.30M.
The average DKIST spending for FY 2023 (burn rate; BR) is $2.39M / month.
4. Science Operations (Ali and Andres)
4.1 Status of Observing
The fourth observing window (OCP2.4) closed on .
The fifth observing window (OCP2.5) opened on (and will close on ).
was spent on ViSP external focus verification (on-sun activity, Instrumentation Group) and a Cryo-NIRSP straylight mitigation improvement (on-sun activity, Instrumentation Group).
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4.8 Science Operations Tools
OpsTools (Proposal Architect work, Experiment Architect work, OPMT work, Loki work) updates/activities should be included here(?) (this is actually Bret or JohnH/HLS and Bob Tawa/OpsTools).
4.8.1 Management
Hiring process for new OpsTool software engineer, interviews scheduled. (Bob to fill in details).
DKIST Data Center staff interviewed two candidates the week of October 2-6 for a new software engineer to work on operations tools.
5 Technical Operations (Heather and Paul)
5.1 Site & Facility Status
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6 Instrumentation Operations (Bret, Friedrich, and Dave H.)
6.1 Optics
6.1.1 System Optics
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The GS50T950 beam splitter has shipped to Maui.
The redward drift of FIDO coating performance identified during ViSP 486nm observations is being assessed with additional ellipsometric data on coating witness samples. Additional metrology at the vendor is also being performed and processed by the DKIST team.
The GS30T500 back side AR coating was done and coating stress interferometry data collected. The front side dichroic coating was adjusted to be slightly thicker per spectral metrology results. Stress test coatings are scheduled for next month.
The contract for the LBS940 and G30T500 beamsplitters has been signed.
6.1.3 Polarization Analysis and Calibration (PA&C)
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First short wave infra-red detectors have completed fabrication and are entering testing.
The Operation Concepts Definition document for the IR cameras has been created. This will be used to define the IR camera controller specifications.
7 Data Center Operations (Bob and Alisdair)
7.1 Hardware Infrastructure
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7.3.1 Data Released
There were a total of XX 80 data sets released to their PIs and a total of YY 28 data sets released to the public this month.
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