Swift Big Events
Timeline of notable spacecraft events that effect data analysis.(Note: this page is a temporary source of information, and will be replaced at a future date with a more complete resource.)
The UVOT AT sequence was changed from the values previously set on March 15, 2006. The new sequence is "release13". See the UVOT AT and PT sequences page for further details.
The observation of UVOT Pre-planned Targets (PTs) was disabled from approximately March 07, 20:00 UT to March 08, 20:00 UT. A list of effected observations will be linked here, when it becomes available.
A new boresight for the XRT was implemented at 00:10 UT. For details see GCN Circular 5872, an XRT team update on the boresight change.
From 2006-November-10 T22:48:14 to 2006-November-22 T19:57:00 the UVOT was operating with a reduced hardware window, but not reporting this window size correctly in the telemetry. This ultimately affects the fluxes calculated from the UVOT rates. See this note on correcting UVOT frame times for details, including the proper technique for analyzing these data.
The UVOT AT sequence was changed from the values previously set on Feb. 23, 2006. The new sequence is "release12_2". See the UVOT AT and PT sequences page for further details.
The UVOT AT sequence was changed from the values previously set on Jan. 10, 2006. The new sequence is "release12_1". See the UVOT AT and PT sequences page for further details.
The UVOT AT sequence was changed from the values previously set on Oct. 3, 2005. The new sequence is "release12". See the UVOT AT and PT sequences page for further details.
At 15:59 UTC the UVOT AT sequence was changed from the launch values to "release11_2". For the original and new sequences, see the UVOT AT and PT sequences page.
UVOT changed the "shift-and-add" algorithm used on-board the satellite for aspect correction; the change corrected some losses ascribed to the earlier algorithm.
On June 9, 2005, the UVOT team installed a patch to the flight software in order to (1) increase the size of the GeNIe image and (2) allow UVOT to correctly use the XRT position for afterglows.
A bug was found in the BAT flight software that results in bad times for all BAT lightcurves generated for TDRSS, dating from 17:29 on May 10, 2005. (See GCN circ #3429.) BAT lightcurves calculated on the ground (ie., not in the "tdrss" directory or from TDRSS), are correct. The problem was fixed in a flight software upload at 13:38 on June 7, 2005. Distribution of correct BAT TDRSS lightcurves resumed June 22, 2005. Any BAT TDRSS lightcurves from the period of May 10 - June 7 should be disregarded.
At 18:55:43 on Apr. 7, 2005, new flight software was enabled that changed the UVOT settling exposure from UVW2 to V.
Near approx. 09:30-09:40 UTC on March 31, star cameras lost lock, leading to apparent bursts caused by Vela X-1 being detected at a wrong location. Valid attitude was regained at approx. 21:30 UTC. All data between these times have invalid attitude.
| Date | Action |
|---|---|
| Mar. 5, 2005 | UVOT preliminary drift correction enabled. (Effects UVOT image mode data; preliminary drift correction with this algorithm is incomplete.) |
| Mar. 7, 2005 | UVOT drift correction roll offset parameter updated. (Improves UVOT image mode data, but drift correction is still problematic during this period.) |
| Mar. 24, 2005 | UVOT drift correction disabled. |
| Mar. 29, 2005 | New UVOT drift correction parameters uploaded to fix drift correction. On-board drift correction re-enabled. |
| Date and Time | Action |
|---|---|
| Mar. 9, 2005 22:15 UTC | BAT High Voltage (HV) lowered from nominal 200v to 100v, in 50v steps. |
| Mar. 10, 2005 15:52-17:58 UTC | BAT rebooted to help clear memory |
| Mar. 11, 2005 18:11 UTC | BAT High Voltage (HV) raised from 100v to 200v, in 50v steps, 1 minute apart. |
| Mar. 11, 2005 19:55 UTC | BAT triggers re-enabled |
| Mar. 13, 2005 01:99 UTC | BAT automatic slewing resumed (AT_Slewing Enabled) |
From 14:49:02 UTC on Feb. 11, 2005 until the end of the day, there is no XRT science data.
At 21:57 UTC, Jan. 31, 2005 the star tracker stellar abberation correction was changed; sources on the focal plane now will have fixed positions in raw coordinates.
At 01:55 UTC on day-of-year 348 (December 13, 2004) a command was uploaded to align the star-tracker boresight with the NFI instrument axes.
If you have a question about Swift, please contact us via the Feedback form.