Last Revision: 17 November 2014
McMAC Magnetometer Chain's SATX Station
Information and Instructions for Magnetometer Science Operations Manager
Fall 2014 to Summer2015.
1.
Purpose of This Document
This document provides information and instructions for the Science Operations Manager (SOM) of the SATX
station (part of the McMAC magnetometer chain), onsite at Southwest Research Institute.
2.
San Antonio (SATX) McMAC Station
The instrument is a magnetometer that takes routine measurements of the geomagnetic field, used in remotesensing of the inner magnetosphere. It is part of a North American chain of ground-based magnetometers known
as Mid-continent MAgnetoseismic Chain (McMAC) which stretches from Glyndon, MN (L=3.4) down to
Linares, Mexico (L=1.5) [cf. Chi et al., 2013 and Figure 0]. The McMAC project is led by Dr. Peter Chi of
UCLA. The SATX magnetometer itself is located onsite here at SwRI. It is connected to a PC that acquires the
data, roughly 100 MB per month.
FIGURE 0: Map of McMAC and ground-based magnetometers along the same magnetic meridian [figure taken
from Chi et al., 2013]. The McMAC stations are in red.
3.
Need For a Science Operations Manager, Oct 2014 – May 2015
Ordinarily, the SATX station data are transmitted to UCLA via internet, directly from the PC. However, during
the period October 2014 through May 2015 (dates are approximate) we need to take the computer off of the SwRI
network1. (That is, we need to sever the internet connection to the PC for several months.) Therefore, we need
someone to visit the PC on a monthly basis, and manually download the data to a USB drive, then transmit these
data to a UCLA FTP server on a separate computer that is connected to the internet.
4.
Publications
McMAC Project PI Peter Chi has kindly agreed that whomever manages the SATX station will be invited to be a
co-author on at least one future paper, possibly more--especially if a team member writes a paper using the data
acquired during the Science Operations Manager's tenure.
5.
Responsibilities / Guidelines
The SATX magnetometer Science Operations Manager (SOM) accepts the following responsibilities:
1
The SATX PC must remain isolated from the network until a needed upgrade to the OS. The current OS (as of
Oct 2014) is too out of date to maintain proper network security.
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Monthly Visits. Monthly visits to the SATX magnetometer's PC to download data to a USB drive or other
portable storage device. Details of the Monthly Visits are given below.
Scheduling. At this time (Oct 2014) it is envisioned that these monthly visits should occur at or very near
the end of each month. However, the phasing of the visits is flexible, so long as no more than ~1 month of
new data accumulates on the magnetometer PC.
Data Delivery. It is the SOM's responsibility to transmit all data from the USB drive (or other storage
device) to the McMAC team at UCLA. The instructions for electronic transmission of data are given below.
Communication with McMAC Team Members. The Science Operations Manager may also need to
participate in occasional email or telephone communications among McMAC team members and/or SwRI
personnel. For example, if there is a problem with the PC, or with some of the data, or with the operation of
the magnetometer itself, the SOM may need to be involved in discussions either via email or teleconference.
Backup / Reserve SOMs. The Science Operations Manager is responsible for making sure the monthly data
downloads / transmission to UCLA occur. If the SOM is unable to fulfill this responsibility for any reason—
either temporary (e.g., "need to skip a month") or permanently—several Backup/Reserve SOMs are available
if necessary. Therefore, in the event of inability to perform a monthly visit (or visits), the SOM agrees to
contact Jerry Goldstein (jgoldstein@swri.edu) as far in advance of the next scheduled monthly visit as
possible, so that one of the Reserve SOMs may be activated.
6.
Location
The SATX magnetometer's PC is in Building 44, on "Architect's Hill". From Martin Goland Ave, turn north onto
Avenue E and Building 44 is on your left (cf. Figures 1 and 2 (left panel)). Looking at Building 44 from the
north-side parking lot, enter the black door as shown in Figure 2 (right panel). The closet containing the
McMAC PC is in a small closet directly adjacent to the Men's Room; cf. the floor plan of Figure 3. Open the
closet door and the McMAC PC is on the bottom shelf (cf. Figure 4).
FIGURE 1: SwRI campus map, larger view.
FIGURE 2.
LEFT: Close-up of "Architect's Hill".
RIGHT: Front of Building 44.
FIGURE 3: Floor Plan of Building 44. Follow the path (red footsteps) to the McMAC PC, which is in a small closet
next to the Men's Room.
FIGURE 4. The McMAC PC.
7.
File Structure
The magnetometer data files are stored in the following file structure:
C:\THEMIS\data\<year>\<month>\<day>\
It is expected that there will be approximately 3 MB of data each day, or about 100 MB of data per month. The
SOM should visit the site once a month and copy the entire "month" folder to a portable storage device (e.g., USB
drive). Because the McMAC team at UCLA cannot monitor the operation through the Internet in this scenario, a
periodic visit can also help check if the instrument is still working.
8.
Data Transmission to UCLA
In mid-November 2014 UCLA enabled data transfer via FTP. See instructions Section 9.2.
9.
Procedure for Monthly Visits
9.1
Retrieving the Data from the McMAC PC.
FIGURE 5.
LEFT: McMAC closet door.
MIDDLE: File structure.
RIGHT: Copying to USB drive.
a. When you get to the closet with the McMAC PC, open the door and turn on the light. The light is a pullchain attached to the ceiling fixture.
b. Attach your USB drive to the McMAC PC. The USB port access is on the front face of the PC. You may
need to slide the little door down to get to the USB port. There may be a rolled-up piece of paper (with the
username and password!) in the USB port compartment; if so, please replace it in there once you're done with
your visit.
c. Copy all files from the previous month to your USB drive. E.g., if your visit is on 12/1/2014, copy the entire
folder/directory named C:\THEMIS\data\2014\11\ to your USB drive.
d. Replace the paper in the USB port compartment, turn off the light, and close the door.
e. Take your USB drive to an internet-connected computer to transmit the data to UCLA.
9.2
9.2.1
Transmitting the Data to UCLA.
Data Transfer Via FTP.
Server:
terra.igpp.ucla.edu
User:
ftpguest
Password:
IG2014pp
Log in and go into the folder "mcmac". Copy the entire data folder/directory (e.g, C:\THEMIS\data\2014\11\
above) into mcmac/. PROVISIONAL: Remember to put your folder (whose name, in the example just given,
would be simply "11") into the folder (e.g., "2014" in the same example) of the correct year. Since each moth's
data folder is labeled only by its month number (e.g., "11"), it is absolutely essential that you place the monthly
folder into the correct year folder. A mistake in this procedure could result in major confusion. Need Procedure
to Write EMAIL.
REFERENCES
Chi, P. J., et al. (2013), Sounding of the plasmasphere by Mid-continent MAgnetoseismic Chain (McMAC)
magnetometers, J. Geophys. Res. 118, 3077–3086, doi:10.1002/jgra.50274.