Our monitoring of the omiscans for the top BBH/BNS triggers has turned up some interesting glitches from October 30 and 31 at the Hanford detector. First off, we have the following scan vetoed by the UPV, demonstrating solid UPV performance:

https://ldas-jobs.ligo-wa.caltech.edu/~jacob.broida/Oct30/BBH/GW/1130235508/
https://ldas-jobs.ligo-wa.caltech.edu/~jacob.broida/Oct30/BBH/1130235508/#H1:ASC-Y_TR_A_NSUM_OUT_DQ

A few interesting things to note here: the signal on the vetoed channel is clearly visible in the CALIB_STRAIN scan, however the signal is moved to a higher frequency. Secondly, the cause of the loud glitch signal at lower frequency is unclear, although there is some potential connection to other auxiliary channels.

Next we have another loud glitch signal showing up in the CALIB_STRAIN channel, however the veto seems to have failed here:

https://ldas-jobs.ligo-wa.caltech.edu/~jacob.broida/Oct31/BBH/GW/1130327173/
https://ldas-jobs.ligo-wa.caltech.edu/~jacob.broida/Oct31/BBH/1130327173

This time is indeed vetoed, however the veto channel was not strong enough to be mapped (SNR threshold set at 6). Even so, there is clear correlation between the CALIB_STRAIN signal and a number of auxiliary channels. It’s worth noting that there are loud signals across a good many of channels (and a couple different types of detectors) at this time. This scan is abnormally noisy in general.

Here we have a glitch in CALIB_STRAIN with a strong connection to a particular auxiliary channel, missed by the UPV:

https://ldas-jobs.ligo-wa.caltech.edu/~jacob.broida/Oct31/BBH/GW/1130326931/
https://ldas-jobs.ligo-wa.caltech.edu/~jacob.broida/Oct31/BBH/1130326931/#H1:ASC-REFL_A_RF45_Q_PIT_OUT_DQ

As can be seen in the uniform signal across the auxiliary channels, there was a very loud, intermittent event here that was detected by a great number of different auxiliary detectors.

There is an interesting glitch here with an unclear cause:

https://ldas-jobs.ligo-wa.caltech.edu/~jacob.broida/Oct31/BNS/GW/1130314219/

And finally the big glitch that we have been chasing the past few days was seen again:

https://ldas-jobs.ligo-wa.caltech.edu/~jacob.broida/Oct30/BBH/GW/1130226154/
https://ldas-jobs.ligo-wa.caltech.edu/~jacob.broida/Oct30/BBH/1130226154/#H1:PEM-EY_MAG_EBAY_SUSRACK_X_DQ

We know this glitch is correlated with the following channel, however we believe that channel to be simply reacting to the same thing that is causing the glitch, and that the true cause lies elsewhere. We will continue to update as we try to isolate the root issue. For further viewing of the daily omiscans, view the calendar page here:

https://ldas-jobs.ligo-wa.caltech.edu/~jacob.broida/ResultsCalender.html

Four attachments here comparing Magnitude & Phase for the L4Cs and the IPS from April 8 and 30 October (before & after grouting.)

The before grouting picture is always in the top panel.

Summary--On the L4Cs, much nicer, cleaner, quieter between 20 & 50hz.  There are differences above these frequencies but hard to say if better or worse.  For the L4C phase comparison, better coherence and smoother phase. That phase gets to -180 sooner (60 vs 70 hz) though.  For the IPS, suttle but a horizontal zero mode might be softer but has moved down from 70 to 60hz.  Otherwise, eh.  For the phase on the IPS, it gets to -180 about 10 hz sooner, 40 vs 50hz.

Several operators have had trouble with some SDF diffs left over after running a2l recently.  This is my fault - I think it happened when I was trying to hand-merge and reconcile our version of the a2l script with the svn version.  It should be fixed now.

At this point, I think we should continue running a2l on Tuesdays in the measure-only mode that we've been using, so that we do have some long-term monitoring of our spot positions, but it is no longer important to run a2l every lock stretch.  I have removed the sticky note from the ops workstation, and from the ops StickyNote wiki page.

PSL Status:

SysStat: All Green, except VB program offline & LRA out of range

Output power: 31.9w  

Frontend Watch: Green

HPO Watch: Red

PMC:

Locked: 12 days, 23 hours, 40 minutes

Reflected power:    1.8w

Transmitted power: 23.7w

Total Power:       25.6w

ISS:

Diffracted power: 8.4%

Last saturation event: 0 days, 8 hours, 49 minutes

FSS:

Locked: 0 days, 8 hours, 49 minutes

Trans PD: 1.467v

SEI:
Hugh – Finished HAM1 data collection over the weekend

CDS:
Several staff out this week. Limited activities

PSL:
All OK – Nothing to report

VAC:
Kyle – Working at X28.
Kyle – Expects failure of Annulus Ion pumps throughout the site, which will be replaced as they fail.  

FMC:
Bubba – The repair work on the beam tube enclosure continues. 

Planned Tuesday Maintenance Work:
Bubba – Grease supply fans at CS, Mids, and Ends (WP #5586)
Bubba – Remove grout forms from HAM1 
Hugh – Power cycle ITM-Y ISI coil driver (WP #5587)
Jodi – Forklifting storage load from 1-Ton into Mid-X (WP #5589)
Rick – Photograph ETM surface looking for contamination (WP #5585)
Jason – Inspect, photograph, and document Bio switch states for all H1 OpLevs (WP #5588)
Richard – Continue installing PEM temperature sensors 
	         Checking Beckhoff cabling
	         Solar panel installation on X-Arm (maybe)
Keita - Measure dark offset of ISS Second Loop 
	    Check whitening gain for Baffle Diode at CS, and Ends

LN2 deliveries scheduled for Mid-X and Mid-Y	

O1 days 42 - 45

model restarts logged for Sun 01/Nov/2015 No restarts reported

model restarts logged for Sat 31/Oct/2015 No restarts reported

model restarts logged for Fri 30/Oct/2015 No restarts reported

model restarts logged for Thu 29/Oct/2015 No restarts reported

Title:  11/02/2015, Day Shift 16:00 – 00:00 (08:00 – 16:00) All times in UTC (PT)
	
State of H1: 16:00 (08:00) The IFO is locked at NOMINAL_LOW_NOISE, in Observing mode 

Outgoing Operator: Jim

Quick Summary:  IFO locked at NOMINAL_LOW_NOISE, 22.3W, 78Mpc. Wind is a light breeze (4-7mph), Seismic is looking better. Although the microseism is still a bit high (0.5 to 0.3um/s) the trend is downward.    	

 

Title: 11/2 Owl Shift 8:00-16:00 UTC

State of H1: Observing

Shift Summary: I finished the initial alignment just in time for an earthquake in Alaska to hit. It was small however, didn't seem to affect locking aftewards. A few guardian and ISS hickups slowed up locking, but it seems winds have died down and useism is slowly receding. All night low frequency oscillations seem to be affecting IMC-F and maybe EY tidal? ASC loops are also unhappy, but the lock holds

Activity log:

8:45 Finish up initial alignment, an earthquake hits but eventually things quiet enough to lock

9:30 Locking hangs on DC readout, initing takes ISC_LOCK to down

10:00 Maybe a hung ISS loop holds locking,

10:30 Low noise finally, I run A2L, into Observe ~11:00

Attempting to get the IFO back into observing, but A2L tripped me up with a page or two SDF diffs, which I reverted. Now ETMY shows violin mode damping diffs. I'm accepting them but posting a screen shot of the changes, so someone who knows the whys can check.

For the second time tonight, I've lost lock because ISC_LOCK reached some state and decided it was time for a break. Each time, locking was finally going okay, no obvious issues, then Guardian reaches some state that I want it to wait at, and it then refuses to move on. No amount of, loading, pausing, execing, requesting higher states then switching to manual and going back to the current state will get it to move on. Only INITing, which then causes ISC_LOCK to go to DOWN.

Title: 11/1 Eve Shift 23:00-7:00 UTC (16:00-24:00 PST).  All times in UTC.

State of H1: Initial alignment

Shift Summary: I have been having trouble getting past ALS since the lockloss earlier.  I dug though the aLog and only found one mentions of the problem I seem to be having (see aLog 22543 for a description of the identical problem).  Following the logic of that post, I have ran a dither alignment on TMSx and started initial alignment.  Handing off to Jim with IA partially complete.

Incoming operator: Jim

Activity log:

Covered in earlier aLogs and summary.

Lost lock at 6:53 UTC.  At first glance, it appears the ASC loops started running away and a bunch of SUSes saturated.

The wind has calmed significantly (20 mph seems reasonable after the past few days), but microseism remains very high (centered around 0.6 um/s).  Miraculously, I made it to Observing with little issue other than some slight tweaking of the ETMs (no full initial alignment was performed). 

Steps to Observing:

• Cleared ETMy timing error at 0:13 UTC before attempting to lock.  Jeff and I noticed this had popped up at the end of his shift.
• Called Kissel about the O1 CDS Overview screen no longer showing a red box for EXC.  We walked through verifying that the lines were in fact running, and after checking the old CDS Overview screen, I saw that it showed the EXC box as purple as expected.  I'm not sure why the O1 CDS overview screen no longer shows the H1CALCS EXC box red.
• Called Keita (on-call commissioner) to go over some SDF diffs I had not seen before.  See attached screenshots for lists of the SDF diffs.  On his advice after digging through some aLogs, I reverted the ASC-ADS diffs, and accepted the DHARD gains and ETMy gains.  We're not sure why the ASC-ADS channels showed diffs, but it could possibly be related to a failed A2L script run mentioned in aLog 23003. 
• Observing Mode at 2:44 UTC.

Keita also advised to keep an eye on the DHARD loops for a 0.6 Hz oscillation as described by Kiwamu in aLog 22871.  These diffs have been accepted several times in the past week without issue, but it is something to keep in mind.

Activity Log: All Times in UTC (PT)

15:35 (07:35) Take over from TJ
15:56 (07:56) 5.8 mag EQ in Chile – R-Wave (1.13 micro m/s) expected ~08:00
17:03 (09:03) Put IFO into DOWN state. Wind and Seismic activity are back up
17:44 (09:44) Marissa – Called to check on state of IFO – Will call her if I get the IFO locked. 
20:20 (12:20) Going into LVEA to pull data from 3IFO desiccant cabinet – Approved by Mike L.
20:40 (12:40) Out of the LVEA
00:00 (16:00) Turn over to Travis


End of Shift Summary:

Title: 11/01/2015, Day Shift 16:00 – 00:00 (08:00 – 16:00) All times in UTC (PT)

Support: Mike L.,   

Incoming Operator: Travis

Shift Summary: Tried relocking while winds were calmer during early morning. Some but not enough success before wind velocity came back up. Not making it past LOCKING_ALS now, so have put the IFO into a DOWN state. Will monitor wind and seismic; when conditions improve will reattempt to lock.

Wind and seismic activity are still high, although there is a forecast improvement for tomorrow morning. Forecast has winds at a moderate to fresh breeze (17 - 22 mph) until 08:00 (00:00). After midnight, winds are forecast to drop to a gentle to moderate breeze (10 – 15 mph) and be down to a light breeze by dawn. The maximum wind speed trends over the past 8 hours shows a downward trend. 

Unfortunately seismic is still a mixed bag. The EQ plot (0.03 – 0.1 Hz) is on a downward trend for the past two hours. It is now generally close to or below the 0.1 um/s line. Microseism is not so good. The trend for the past 18 hours is up. Perhaps with some flattening over the past 2 hours. It is now running between 1 and 0.5 um/s. 

If the forecast holds and seismic activity settles down later this evening or early tomorrow should hold a decent chance of relocking the IFO. 

   Wind and seismic still ugly for locking. Winds at moderate breeze (13-18mph) to near gale (28-33mph) with gusts well over 40mph. No significant change in seismic levels. IFO is in DOWN state until conditions improve.     

   With winds a bit calmer early this morning, and after TJs initial alignment, tried to relock the IFO. Unfortunately wind is coming back up before we were able to lock. The locking made it to once to REDUCE_CARM_OFFSET and CARM_ON_TR before DRMI unlocks and it goes down. The CARM_ON_TR lock broke a few seconds after the CS took a sustained gust of 30 plus.  

   The winds are back up, fluctuating from mid-teens to lower 30s. Have recorded a gust at End-X of 40 plus. Seismic is not much better. The EQ band is elevated, especially the end stations. The microseism band is recording CS-Z values of over 1.0 um/s and is averaging around the 0.5 um/s line. 

   As environmental conditions deteriorate locking is getting worse. At this point barely able to make it past LOCKING_ALS. Will give it a few more tries and if not better success will put the IFO into DOWN until conditions improve.