1. Monitoring GLAST Operations: Building tracking displays for the LAT Instrument Science Operations Center By Christina Ketchum

2. Gamma-ray Production Gamma-rays are created in many ways, including solar flares, collapsing binary neutron stars, and pulsars. There are different classes of gamma-ray variability: –gamma-ray bursts (GRBs), lasting from 1- 100seconds –longer term variable gamma-ray emission, lasting from days to weeks One of the most interesting means of gamma-ray production is by relativistic jets from an active galactic nucleus (AGN). EGRET discovered 271 gamma-ray sources, 170 are unidentified.

3. GLAST and the LAT Gamma-ray Large Area Space Telescope -Will be launched in September of 2007 -Aboard are the LAT (Large Area Telescope) and the GBM (Glast Burst Monitor) -ISOC (Instrument Science Operations Center) at SLAC is responsible for in-flight operations of the LAT -The LAT is the successor to the EGRET -The LAT will survey the entire sky every 3.1 hours

4. What We Want to Know Programs Available Where is GLAST in its orbit? Where is the LAT pointing? When can GLAST make contact with TDRSS (Tracking and Data Relay Satellite System)? SatTrack –Professional space visualization –Multiple options for data input STK –Sophisticated ground view with satellites Xephem –Sky view showing the GLAST path DS9 –User creates full sky image from LAT data –Projects the LAT field of view on full sky image GPS GLAST Spacecraft Large Area Telescope & GBM TDRSS SN S & Ku White Sands GN DELTA 7920H Mission Operations Center (MOC) GLAST Science Support Center LAT Instrument Science Operations Center

5. Data Flow Structure NASA ISOC Database Display Tools SatTrackSTKDS9Xephem TDRSS Ephemerides GLAST Ephemerides Preliminary Science Timeline GLAST Forecast Schedule Display Tools Data Initialized weekly by Cron Future

6. STK and the Ground Map

7. Nonstandard coordinate systems: The STK problem Ephemerides – time table of positional information of orbiting bodies, includes either x,y,z position or RA and Dec as well as velocity of the satellite TLEs – (two line elements) a set of Keplerian elements that fully describes the orbit of a satellite How we knew there was a problem: geostationary satellites, not so stationary STK propagates ephemerides from TLEs with an inertially rotating coordinate frame Ephemerides provided by NASA with a fixed coordinate frame Potential solution: coordinate transformation to new time dependant system Implemented solution: use TLEs instead

8. DS9 and the Sky View

9. SatTrack and the Space View Satellites and the EGRET Gamma-ray Source Catalog

10. SatTrack and the Space View GLAST and TDRSS with Boresight Markers

11. Xephem and the Sky View

12. Possible Display Improvements Incorporate contact times into the STK ground view display. Make a ground view map in STK or SatTrack using Ephemerides instead of TLEs. Create another sky view display with DS9 to show the gamma-ray activity from the past day.

13. Acknowledgements I would like to thank my mentor Rob Cameron for directing my project and answering my questions, Steve Culp for assisting with data accessing, and James Chiang for supporting my use of DS9. I would also like to thank the DOE and SULI for providing this opportunity of summer research.