TITLE: 07/31 Day Shift: 1430-2330 UTC (0730-1630 PST), all times posted in UTC
STATE of H1: Observing at 151Mpc
INCOMING OPERATOR: Ryan S
SHIFT SUMMARY: Two locklosses, Ryan will try to get the calibration measurement later this evening. We've been locked for just under 3 hours.
LOG:

• 15:13 UTC lockloss during Simulines
  • 16:12 UTC Initial Alignment
  • DRMI took over 20 minutes and a round of PRMI to lock
• 19:31 UTC lockloss
  • 20:42 UTC Observing
  • Erik restarted the TP_MON IOC after I noticed it had been frozen since Jun 16th

TITLE: 07/31 Eve Shift: 2330-0500 UTC (1630-2200 PST), all times posted in UTC
STATE of H1: Observing at 150Mpc
OUTGOING OPERATOR: Ryan C
CURRENT ENVIRONMENT:
    SEI_ENV state: CALM
    Wind: 13mph Gusts, 8mph 3min avg
    Primary useism: 0.04 μm/s
    Secondary useism: 0.04 μm/s
QUICK SUMMARY: H1 has been locked and observing for 2.5 hours. If there's an opportunity, I'll run the calibration sweeps that weren't fully completed this morning.

• Earthquakes have been rolling through all day, but the ground is mostly calm at the moment
• Wind speeds low
• All other systems nominal

FAMIS 28416, last checked in alog85920

Too low of coherence for ITMX this week, so no new data point in that plot.

Last year we found that a problem with the H1 GS13 was causing a .375hz feature in the motion of the table which showed up in the filter cavity. The root issue was a GS13 having a low gain compared to the other sensors. I was able to compensate by  adding a digital gain of 2. During the vent, this gain got reverted at some point and the sdf accepted. I didn't fix this when I found it because it didn't seem to be causing the same issue, but it seems the feature has now returned.  Doesn't seem to be causing problems for the filter cavity that I've heard of, but the ISI and SUS definitely see this feature. 

First image are the side osems for FC2 while the IFO was locked, the crosshair is at .375hz, similar to what we saw in the past. 

Second image is the HAM8 summary page for today, the .375hz feature is clearly visible while the ISI is isolated.

Third image are l2l tfs for each co-located gs13/cps pair, the red trace shows the magnitude of this tf is almost exactly half the other 2 gs13/cps pairs, above 1 hz. 

I will try to fix this next Tuesday, but if the filter cavity is having problems,  caput H1:ISI-HAM8_GS13INF_H1_GAIN 2 in a terminal and then accepting the sdf diff should fix the issue.

The last week has seen the space temperature of the VEA at End X slowly increase during the morning hours. This was found to be associated with the outdoor air temperature reset programming which allowed the supply air temperature to reset upward as the temperature outside cooled off, which was most pronounced in the early morning hours. This rise in supply air temperature prevented the air handler from effectively cooling the space, until the sun came up and warmed the air, which caused a downward reset. This programming has been modified to avoid this problem in the future. 

Thu Jul 31 10:14:22 2025 INFO: Fill completed in 14min 18secs

Gerardo confirmed a good fill curbside.

We lost lock during the simulines.

Broadband:

Start: 2025-07-31 08:01:17

Stop: 2025-07-31 08:06:27
File: 2025-07-31 08:06:27,403 bb output: /ligo/groups/cal/H1/measurements/PCALY2DARM_BB/PCALY2DARM_BB_20250731T150117Z.xml

Simulines:

Start: 2025-07-31 15:07:27.930077 UTC // GPS: 1438009665.930077

Stop:

PDT: 2025-07-31 08:13:55.521211 PDT
UTC: 2025-07-31 15:13:55.521211 UTC
GPS: 1438010053.521211

2025-07-31 15:13:36,414 | INFO | Scanning frequency 8.99 in Scan : DARM_OLGTF on PID: 915550
2025-07-31 15:13:36,414 | INFO | Drive, on DARM_OLGTF, at frequency: 8.99, is now running for 31 seconds.
2025-07-31 15:13:51,097 | ERROR | IFO not in Low Noise state, Sending Interrupts to excitations and main thread.
2025-07-31 15:13:51,098 | ERROR | Ramping Down Excitation on channel H1:SUS-ETMX_L2_CAL_EXC
2025-07-31 15:13:51,098 | ERROR | Ramping Down Excitation on channel H1:LSC-DARM1_EXC
2025-07-31 15:13:51,098 | ERROR | Ramping Down Excitation on channel H1:CAL-PCALY_SWEPT_SINE_EXC
2025-07-31 15:13:51,098 | ERROR | Ramping Down Excitation on channel H1:SUS-ETMX_L1_CAL_EXC
2025-07-31 15:13:51,098 | ERROR | Ramping Down Excitation on channel H1:SUS-ETMX_L3_CAL_EXC
2025-07-31 15:13:51,098 | ERROR | Aborting main thread and Data recording, if any. Cleaning up temporary file structure.

15:13 UTC lockloss, there was a 5.0 from between Greenland and northern Canada hitting us at the time.

TITLE: 07/31 Day Shift: 1430-2330 UTC (0730-1630 PST), all times posted in UTC
STATE of H1: Observing at 149Mpc
OUTGOING OPERATOR: TJ
CURRENT ENVIRONMENT:
    SEI_ENV state: CALM
    Wind: 16mph Gusts, 8mph 3min avg
    Primary useism: 0.10 μm/s
    Secondary useism: 0.05 μm/s
QUICK SUMMARY:

• We've been locked for 4.5 hours
• Earthquakes continued overnight
• Wind is low
• Commissioning today from 15:00 - 19:00 UTC
  • I will start with a calibration measurement

Was notified just after we got to low noise, the SQZ FC couldn't lock. Following the wiki help intructions, flashes on H1:SQZ-FC_TRANS_C_LF_OUTPUT were low so I tried moving FC2 to get them higher. Looking at the camera wasn't really helpful. I was only able to get it to lock with values around 30, and no matter how much I moved FC2 I couldn't get this to increase. When the SQZ_FC node tries locking it would get values there around 80, not sure whats different. 

I tried trending FC2 and 1 to see if they moved in the earthquake but they were right where they were last lock. I took a break from scouring the alog and tried to manually move FC2 around again, and while I was waiting between moves, the trans output jumped to 55. I then moved FC2 some more it maxed it out at 94. When I tried to have it lock again though, it still couldin't hold lock.

I tried adjusting the OPO temp, via the SQZ_OPO_LR guardian, since that worked for Oli on July 9 (alog85660). This also didn't seem to help things out.

I let the SQZ guardian keep trying while I read some more alogs for clues and then it eventually just stayed locked and we went into observing. The FC trans output was still around 80 though, so I'm not sure this will hold, but I'm hoping!

TITLE: 07/31 Eve Shift: 2330-0500 UTC (1630-2200 PST), all times posted in UTC
STATE of H1: Observing at 151Mpc
INCOMING OPERATOR: TJ
SHIFT SUMMARY: While last night's shift went on without any observing time, tonight was the exact opposite with H1 locked and observing for the duration with steady range. Many aftershocks of yesterday's large earthquake with magnitudes over 5.0 rolled through continuously this evening, but H1 rode through all of these, occasionally entering earthquake mode during some of the larger motion. H1 has now been locked for over 15 hours.

On an operations note, based on TJ's suggestion from his time on last night's owl shift, I've edited the H1_MANAGER node to start an initial alignment instead of immediately calling for assistance if IR is not found during the 'FIND_IR' state. It will call for assistance, however, if an alignment has already been run and IR is still not found. Changes have been loaded and committed to svn.

TITLE: 07/30 Day Shift: 1430-2330 UTC (0730-1630 PST), all times posted in UTC
STATE of H1: Observing at 149Mpc
INCOMING OPERATOR: Ryan S
SHIFT SUMMARY: We've been in and out of Earthquake mode all day from the constant aftershocks from the 8.8 yesterday off the coast of eastern Russia. We've been locked for almost 9.5 hours.
LOG:                                                                                                                               

I increased the gain on ITMY5/6 from +0.01 to +0.015 and it damps mode5 60-70% faster and mode6 100-110% faster based on the short and long monitors.

• 18:10 - 18:22 UTC We dropped observing as the SQZ FC lost lock, ran an SCAN_OPOTEMP
• 20:33 - 20:37 UTC we dropped OBS from the SQZ PMC losing lock, it was notifying about low volts before hand
  • 22:43 UTC Yellow dust alarm Optics lab, ~2000cts

Ibrahim

Got the newly cleane BRD mounts (D1900570) for the BBSS and fit-checked them on the suspension. They fit just fine with the only note being that the bottom loop wires (the small ends after the clamp) had to be moved out of the way. Of the 2 I fit-checked, 3 of the 4 holes went in very easily and the other fit mostly easily (no extra force applied going in just was not totally smooth turning in). Pictures attached.

The plan now is to get with Rahul and install the actual BRDs, then re-take the Bounce and Roll mode measurements to confirm that they are damping as expected. 

Camilla, Oli

We were wondering what the bias had been during O3, as compared to the amount of ETMX glitch locklosses that had occurred during O3. We referenced Iain Morton's presentation, slide 17. Ignoring the 'SAME' lockloss tags since we know those were caused by the PSL glitching, we found that only 5% of the locklosses from O3b had an ETM_GLITCH tag, while 15% of the locklosses from O4a (plus a bit of O4b) had an ETM_GLITCH tag. Since the method in use at this time for finding ETMX glitches wasn't very good at catching the smaller glitches, we can guess that both percentages may actually be a bit higher, but either way, the percentage of locklosses from ETMX glitches during O3b were much less. We decided to look at what the ETMX bias was during O3b and how that compares to the bias we've been using throughout O4 (until it was changed on Monday 86027).

For all of O3 and up until February 28, 2023 (67698), we had been at a bias of around -450, and then after that date we changed to a bias of around +130, which is what we've had for all of O4 up until a couple of days ago.

TITLE: 07/30 Eve Shift: 2330-0500 UTC (1630-2200 PST), all times posted in UTC
STATE of H1: Observing at 149Mpc
OUTGOING OPERATOR: Ryan C
CURRENT ENVIRONMENT:
    SEI_ENV state: CALM
    Wind: 14mph Gusts, 9mph 3min avg
    Primary useism: 0.09 μm/s
    Secondary useism: 0.06 μm/s
QUICK SUMMARY: H1 has been locked for almost 9 hours.

• Ground motion has been elevated all day, bouncing up and down as aftershocks from the large EQ yesterday roll through
• Wind low
• All other systems nominal

STATE of H1: Observing at 145Mpc

We've been locked for 4:21.

• 18:10 - 18:22 UTC We dropped observing as the SQZ FC lost lock, I decided to run the SCAN_OPOTEMP state during this. SQZing doesn't look all that much different afterwords, the BLRMs look about the same.
• A full 24 hours of earthquakes.

Wed Jul 30 10:19:53 2025 INFO: Fill completed in 19min 49secs

Gerardo confirmed a good fill curbside.

The site has been abuzz as of late. For the past few months, western honeybees have turned LIGO from interferometer to apiary. The first swarm, near the LSB lift station was reported in early May. Since then, Facilities group and others have been combing the site, and some 15 colonies have been captured and extracted with the help of Phillip Johnson from The Bee Team (seen in buzzworthy photos below). 

The bees have been largely indiscriminate about hive habitat selection. To date we have removed them from spools, BTE interiors, irrigation boxes and connexes. It's not clear where the bees came from, or how they got here. The nearest location to site that I could find which would utilize bees, Brainstorm Cellars, is some 6 miles away. This is further than a swarm will migrate. Stranger yet, the habitat between us and the nearest possible location is, to my understanding, not favorable for hive building which would rule out leap frogging to us. Nevertheless, the bees are here and thriving. The queens are prolific egg layers; the forager bees are caked in pollen and the extractions of more established colonies are chalked full with 10's of pounds of delicious, capped honey. Bee temperament is, across the board, very mild. Even during our most invasive extractions they seem largely unbothered. 

All that to say, I hope to see the increase of bees across site taper off strongly, especially as we inch closer to Fall. In the meantime, M. Landry has recently reached out to the WSU Honeybees and Pollinators Program to help us understand how we came to find this abnormal explosion of bees. That meeting has yet to take place. 


C. Soike, M. Robinson, T. Guidry

Looks like the first attempt at locking after the ground motion settled enough failed at find IR. I was notified, but we should change this to start an initial aligment first.

• Started initial alignment, couldn't find IR for input alignment.
  • Restored IMs back to osem positions before the earthquake
• SRY wouldn't lock and even tripped SRM. Moved SRM in P & Y to get better flashes.
• Then another earthquake rolled through, though not huge, it delayed locking for a bit.
  • Reset H1_MANAGER and IFO_NOTIFY, we'll see if it can bring us back on its own.