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PACE commissioning update
Posted on Friday, April 5, 2024 at 09:00:005 April 2024
Instrument commissioning successfully wrapped up yesterday, April 5, and today will see the unofficial end of observatory commissioning. Hard to believe that 57 days have passed since PACE launched! Here’s what’s next:
- PACE's Postlaunch Acceptance Review (PLAR) will be conducted on April 9. PLAR is a significant milestone as it marks the transition from commissioning to mission operations. In essence, the full PACE Project as we know (and love) it is closing, leaving Project Science, the Science Data Segment, and the Flight and Mission Operations Teams to execute the mission going forward. After almost 10 years of working side-by-side, it's bittersweet to see Project staff move on to new missions and adventures. We've relayed to them our communities' appreciation for the blood, sweat, and tears. If you ever cross paths with someone who worked PACE, please buy them a drink!
- Science data will tentatively start flowing publicly on April 11, accompanied by a nasa.gov press release that includes our official "first light" imagery. We expect to start distributing a limited suite of products including OCI radiometry and most heritage ocean color products through Level-3 and polarimetry through Level-1C. Release notes will be provided, as will instructions on how to access data. The latter will be somewhat different from what folks are used to per agency direction. The PACE data products table (https://pace.oceansciences.org/data_table.htm) will be updated by April 11 to reflect what data will be available and when to expect distribution of additional data products. All viable science data collected during our commissioning period will ultimately be reprocessed and distributed as well. In the meantime, ready yourself for the forthcoming flow of data: https://pace.oceansciences.org/work_with_pace_data.htm .
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