An LTP Planning exercise was held on the NMP planning period Jul-Dec 2025, i.e. LTP-12.
Introduction on goals of the exercise and science input (from SWT#24) was presented by SOC. New features in SOOP version 6.1.4 were highlighted too.
SOOP coordinators were appointed for each of the 3 SOOPs to be run during the RS windows: the SOOP R_SMALL_HRES_MCAD_PolarObservations (2 instances, both in RSW1 and 3) was coordinated by A. Giunta, L_BOTH_LRES_MCAD_Pole-to-Pole with a flavour of L_FULL_HRES_HCAD_Eruption_Watch was coordinated by D. Spadaro. For the solar wind tracking in RSW3, the SOOP L_SMALL_HRES_HCAD_SlowWindConnection was chosen which was coordinated by C. Owen.
Due to some delays in the schedule, the proposed step-by-step planning strategy (slides 40-42) was slightly modified in practise:
- Before Tuesday lunch, all SOOPs during RS windows were scheduled and refined to some stage but not yet finalized (step 1). Several PHI and EUI flushes were still missing. Out-of-RSW in-situ science had started but was not fully completed, RS calibrations were mostly missing still (step 2). - See SOOP Kitchen plan version 267.
- By the afternoon coffee break, the IS science had been completed and all SOOP-related RS science included. Several calibration activities were still missing. This plan (SOOP Kitchen plan version 608, baseline 1) got simulated by SOC.
- Step 3 - first full simulation - was run on Tue afternoon and the results shown to the SOWG at the end of the day: there were a few overruns for EUI which could potentially be solved by spreading EUI flushes and tweaking the TM Downlink Ration (TDR). It also became clear from the results that the Slow Wind Connection SOOP could be optimised to generate more TM..
- Overnight, the SOOP coordinators were asked to check the SOOPs and the instrument teams to update data rates for the SlowWindConnection SOOP and add any missing calibration activities.
On Wednesday morning, baseline 2 was saved and 2nd simulation was run. It turned out the TDR tweaking could resolve the EUI overrun but Metis introduced an overrun of their SSMM store by producing too much data during the newly introduced star calibration. A few more optimisation strategies were discussed with the SOWG, and more observation updates were done for SWA, RPW, EUI, Metis and SPICE.
SOC demonstrated the way in which extra E-FECS events (ATT_DIST, EMC events, IS_COORD_BURST) can be added automatically based on software rules.
The LTP planning exercise ended by saving Baseline 3 of the plan, at the end of the SOWG#13 meeting.
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Note that after the meeting, SOC still had to implement a few minor changes to observations (in collaboration with the associated instrument team) and finalized the events, to produce the final Baseline 4. The changes between baseline 3 (end of SOWG#13) and baseline 4 (Final plan) are summarized below:
Instrument observations
- EUI: Add LL and calibration activities pre-RSW3.
- Metis: Add some precursor data (~1MB per day) during the 4 days before RSW. During RSW3, MAGTOP has been moved to after the ATT_DIST. The first few hours are filled with GLOBAL. In addition, the opportunity to run stellar calibration with α Leo (Regulus) has been curtailed by delaying the start, which originally was breaking the Pole-to-Pole SOOP by finishing earlier than the end of RSW2. In real planning, this conflict would need to be avoided at an earlier stage, since the calibration has a fixed required duration.
- SoloHI : add calibration and LL activities in 4 days before RS window 3. Move the switch-on earlier to RSW-4d.
- Link all 'loose' observations to their corresponding SOOPs
EFECS events:
- Update RSW_EXT_SPICE to one day only to fit the calibration activities.
- Add RSW_EXT_EUI at the end of RSW3 to allow for last flush.
- Add several RSW_EXT_PHI's at the end of RSW3 and in inter-RSW period to allow for last flushes.
- Add HSD_SPICE_OPEN before the calibrations start.
- Add open HS doors for phi, metis, eui at end 4 oct. These fall naturally in the ATT_DIST windows.
- Add close doors for all RS instruments after RSW2 and RSW3.
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The planning exercise ended with a discussion session during which feedback was given both on process, SOOP Kitchen tool and content of the plan. The points mentioned during the meeting are summarized on the slides (p67-68).The point discussed at length was the need for better information flow from Mission Level Planning at SWT to Long Term Planning at SOWG: the science objectives to be addressed with the SOOPs need to be communicated much better. Assigning a SOOP coordinator before the SWT that knows about the science to be addressed and can discuss the operational aspects of the SOOP observations with the SOWG should alleviate the problems that were faced during this SOWG planning exercise. We also need to devote more time for planning during SOWGs once we plan for real operations.