Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope

Monthly Operations Report

Status as of December 31, 2023

Table of Contents

1. Science/Technical Highlight (Anyone)

2. Photos (Anyone)

3. Directorate (Thomas and Dave)

3.1 Activities

3.2 Financial Status

• DKIST operations carried forward approximately $XX.XXM in unencumbered funds into FY 2024 from previous years.  A total of $0M in new funding has been obligated by NSF thus far in FY 2024 for a total funding amount of $YY.YYM.

• Financial status of 30 Nov 2023

  • DKIST operational expenditures for the current month were $Q.QQM

  • Total YTD expenditures for DKIST operations are $VV.VVM.

  • The average DKIST spending for the past 12 months (burn rate; BR) is $A.BBM / month.

4. Science Operations (Ali and Andres)

4.1 Status of Observing

• NO observations in December.

4.1.1 Regular Cycle Observing

• NO observations in December.

4.1.2 Solar Orbiter Co-Observing

• N/A.

4.1.3 Parker Solar Probe Co-Observing

• N/A.

4.2 Observing Planning

• OCP 2.6 is planned to start in mid-March until mid-April.

4.3 Science Operations Training Activities

• No training activities

4.4 Science Operations Specialists

• The SOS Group is working on updating the information included in the knowledge training program for new SOSs. The goal is to have the training program updated for the new hire before the expected starting day in April 2024.

4.5 Cycle Preparation

4.6 Experiment Generation

4.6 Science Operations Management

• Planning training activities for SOS Group using feedback from performance reviews.

• Preparing training on Operations Planning and Monitoring Tool (OPMT) for SOSs.

4.7 Science Operations Tools

4.7.1 Management

5 Technical Operations (Heather and Paul)

5.1 Site & Facility Status

5.2 General Site & Facility Repairs, Improvements & Upgrades

5.3 Electrical/Electronics/PLC and Facility Management System

5.3.1  Highlights of Recurring Preventative Maintenance Performed in October

5.3.2 System Repairs & Upgrades

5.4 Mechanical/Thermal

5.4.1 Highlights of Recurring Preventive Maintenance performed in October

5.4.2 System Repairs & Upgrades

5.5 Opto-Mechanical

5.6 Management

5.6.1 Recruitment & Training

5.6.2 Environmental Safety & Health

5.6.3 Observatory Community Service, Broadening Participation 

6 Instrumentation Operations (Bret, Friedrich, and Dave H.)

6.1 Optics

6.1.1 System Optics

6.1.2 Facility Instrument Distribution Optics (FIDO)

• FIDO blanks for the new GS30T500 and LBS940 beamsplitters were shipped to Zygo for figuring.

• The summit coude room FIDO configuration was changed by the TechOps Optical team to support all GOS light to the VTF for the upcoming January/February installation

6.1.3 Polarization Analysis and Calibration (PA&C)

• The GOS needle valve was replaced to improve the coolant flow to the GOS.
  

6.2 Summit Instrumentation

6.2.1 Instrument Systems

6.2.2 Wavefront Correction System (WFS)

• New MCAO balcony cross struts were installed to reduce vibration on the balcony.

6.2.3 Visible Spectro-Polarimeter (ViSP)

• The ViSP All-Stop behavior was changed by the TechOps team to remove the manual toggling after every GIC inhibit.

• The spectral dispersion calculations were changed to save the correct metadata in the header.

• New filter holders have been designed to reduce the amount of time needed by the SOS to swap them.

6.2.4 Diffraction Limited Near-Infrared Spectro-Polarimeter (DL-NIRSP)

6.2.5 Cryogenic Near-Infrared Spectro-Polarimeter (Cryo-NIRSP)

• Major Cryo-NIRSP maintenance activities were performed in December. All cold heads were replaced and the old ones sent to the manufacturer for service. All O-rings were inspected and replaced if needed. The cryo-compressors were serviced and oil absorbers replaced. Compressor over-temperature sensors were replaced.

• The new second grating was installed in the instrument. The second grating will be used only for testing this year.

• The instrument was closed. All vacuum testing was successfully performed.

6.2.6 Visible Broadband Imager

• Dichroic blocking filters for VBI-Blue were ordered from a second vendor following last months specification development. Some commercial mounting hardware was ordered for both -Blue and -Red channel blocking filters. These filters should be installed before out-of-band flux is sent to VBI by the new Grey FIDO beam splitters.

• The new VBI-red H-alpha filter was installed. The old filter was moved to the H-alpha off-band position.

6.7 Multi-Conjugate Adaptive Optics (MCAO)

6.8 High Level Software (HLS)

6.9 Infrared Cameras

7 Data Center Operations (Bob and Alisdair)

7.1 Hardware Infrastructure

• Continued integrating Buys #4 and #5 hardware into the Data Center. The equipment has been racked and stacked, and is awaiting the installation and configuration of switches by CU personnel in order to be integrated and functioning in the DC.

7.2 Software Infrastructure

7.2.1 Data Center

7.2.2 Portal/Archive/Public

7.3 Science Data Processing

7.3.1 Calibration Pipelines

7.3.1 Data Released

DataSets Released to PIs

Datasets Made Public