EVE Instrument Testing

published March 23, 2010

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Now that SDO is in it’s nominal orbit (3/16/2010), we are continuing EVE commissioning tests.

On March 18th, we successfully sent test patterns from the EVE instrument to the EVE Science Operations Center (SOC) in Boulder. This is an end-to-end verification of the science data path; from instrument to spacecraft, down linked by the Ka transmitter to the SDO ground station at White Sands, New Mexico, packaged into files by the Data Distribution System and sent to the EVE SOC. At the EVE SOC, the science data processing system verifies the test pattern data matches expected values and all of the expected data has been received at the SOC. The science data processing system then creates images for the web and performs higher level processing if applicable.

On March 19th, we successfully turned on all of the science components (ESP, MEGS A CCD, and MEGS B CCD). We also performed a checkout of the ESP component, including doing gain calibration, verifying that the foil filters don’t have any visible light leaks, and getting first visible light alignment information. Everything is working great on EVE so far. Stay tuned for more news from EVE commissioning this week. The upcoming tests are cooling down the CCDs and opening the doors on March 26, at which time we’ll get the first solar light for EVE. Until the doors open, the detectors are taking dark / background data.

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