Author | Lightnews

Matthew J West @solarphysicist.bsky.social · 17h

I like making confuse-o-grams that include *all* the details. Help me make this more confusing - what can I add that I'm missing?

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Matthew J West @solarphysicist.bsky.social · 1d

🎉Happy Hamilton Day! Sir William Hamilton gave us Hamiltonian mechanics⚙️

His formulation H=T+V underpins orbital dynamics, spacecraft trajectories, and plasma physics

No Hamiltonian Mechanics→No knowledge of L5 Lagrange point→No perfect spot for a space-weather mission-ESA’s Vigil🌞💨🌍

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Matthew J West @solarphysicist.bsky.social · 11d

Fantastic few days at the Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies with the brilliant Peter Gallagher — great discussions on #AI and ESA’s #Vigil mission. Exciting times ahead: AI forecasting will be helping us very soon! 🌞🤖

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Reposted by Matthew J West

Dr. Craig DeForest ☀️ @craig.deforest.org · Jun 25

Tagging this so the #heliophysics feed picks it up!

Mathew Owens @mathewjowens.bsky.social · Jun 25

There's more magnetic field in the solar wind than models based on the observed solar surface suggest. This is the so-called "open flux problem". Here's an interesting new solution: helicity condensation - highly twisted magnetic field at the small scale relaxes and affects the large scale field.

Jonah Klowss @jklowss.bsky.social · Jun 25

Paper day📄Delighted to announce that my paper has officially been published in The Astrophysical Journal this morning! How much contribution can the mechanism of helicity condensation alone contribute toward resolving the Open Flux Problem? ➡️ iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3...

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Living Reviews | Solar Physics @livingrev-solphys.bsky.social · Jun 23

In a recent HAO/NCAR Colloquium, Philip G. Judge explained the context and motivation of his recent study on "Changing Methodologies in Solar Physics". #SolarPhysics 300, 84 (2025). doi.org/10.1007/s112... #OpenAccess youtu.be/YwFgM7XEtJs

Changing methodologies in solar physics 2025 05 21

YouTube video by High Altitude Observatory HAO | NCAR

youtu.be

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Matthew J West @solarphysicist.bsky.social · Jun 17

Another day, another solar and heliophysics first — @ORB_KSB and @esa.int have created a unique eclipse in space! 🌍☀️🌘

The first formation-flying coronagraph: two spacecraft flying 150 m apart, perfectly aligned to block the Sun and reveal its hot corona.

Find out more:
www.esa.int/Enabling_Sup...

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Roland Pease @peaseroland.bsky.social · Jun 12

Solar astronomer @stephyardley.bsky.social joins BBC Science in Action this week to explain why the new polar views of the Sun, from ESA's Solar Orbiter, will make such a difference in unravelling the Sun's magnetic turmoil and what drives the 11-yr cycle in activity.
www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/w...

BBC World Service - Science In Action, The First Solar Polar Pictures

ESA’s Solar Orbiter camera probe begins raising its orbit towards the sun’s poles.

www.bbc.co.uk

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Matthew J West @solarphysicist.bsky.social · Jun 13

that said.... due to the optically thin nature of the observations at 17.4 nm, these are probably the most unobscured observations of the poles through this passband

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Matthew J West @solarphysicist.bsky.social · Jun 12

😆 I stand corrected

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Matthew J West @solarphysicist.bsky.social · Jun 12

Pleased as PUNCH -pardon the pun(CH) to see these amazing images - led by the great @drzowie.bsky.social - the first full sky heliospheric images from PUNCH capturing a couple of eruptions - The next generation of space weather heliospheric instrumentation will be polarized like PUNCH - #trendsetter

Dr. Craig DeForest ☀️ @craig.deforest.org · Jun 11

Hey! Lookie what PUNCH (@punch-mission.bsky.social) just saw! Two different solar storms crossing the entire inner solar system! NASA's site doesn't thumbnail well, so click the link for the movie and other images. ☀️🔭🛰️🧪

science.nasa.gov/blogs/punch/...

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Matthew J West @solarphysicist.bsky.social · Jun 12

Just to reiterate. This is the FIRST 🥇view of the solar poles. This is astonishing and shows what we, humans, can achieve

ESA Space Science @science.esa.int · Jun 11

Ready to see the Sun like we never have before? 😎

#SolarOrbiter has just released the first views ever of the Sun’s poles!

Thanks to its newly tilted orbit, the mission will uncover details about the Sun’s magnetic field, the solar cycle & space weather 👉 www.esa.int/Science_Expl...

🔭 🧪 ☄️ ☀️ 1/

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Matthew J West @solarphysicist.bsky.social · Jun 7

Oh awesome thanks for the contact!

Matthew J West @solarphysicist.bsky.social · Jun 6

Looks great, I would love to discuss how this might be adopted for #Vigil with you!

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Reposted by Matthew J West

Christian Möstl @chrisoutofspace.bsky.social · Jun 5

This is a new tool to look at @science.esa.int #SolarOrbiter imaging data (or data from other missions) and the field of views of different instruments.
hpa.esa.int/hpa/#/home

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Matthew J West @solarphysicist.bsky.social · Jun 5

Looking at X-ray Flux Monitors today—instruments that detect solar X-ray bursts. They're used in #SpaceWeather☀️☔ studies, helping understand solar☀️flares that can disrupt comms📡, satellites & aviation✈️. Attached an X-ray light curve from 2014 showing confined flares- with no associated eruptions

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Dr. Craig DeForest ☀️ @craig.deforest.org · Jun 4

The National Solar Observatory's 4-meter Inouye Solar Telescope, funded by NSF, just discovered something new on the Sun: magnetic striations only a few tens of kilometers across, which affect the Texas-sized granules that carry solar energy to the surface (to become sunlight)! ☀️🧪🔭⚛️

Magnetic Curtains on the Sun: NSF Inouye Solar Telescope Reveals Ultra-Fine Striations in Solar Surface - NSO - National Solar Observatory

In a groundbreaking new study, a team led by scientists from the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) National Solar Observatory (NSO) has captured the sharpest-ever view of the Sun’s surface, revea...

nso.edu

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Matthew J West @solarphysicist.bsky.social · Jun 4

The Sun 🌞 — our source of space weather ☔ — needs constant watching. Who knows what it’ll throw at us next? @ESA #Vigil ☀️👁️‍🗨️🌍.
imgs.xkcd.com/comics/check...

https://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/check_engine.png

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Matthew J West @solarphysicist.bsky.social · Jun 3

Wrapping up another fascinating @ESA #Vigil👁️‍🗨 instrument day — at Leonardo S.p.A. Florence Italy — focused on the Vigil Heliospheric Imager. HI will be instrumental (pun intended) in tracking Coronal Mass Ejections💨 & space weather☔ from Sun🌞 to Earth🌍. Heres a representative STEREO HI image Jun 2011

Image of the solar corona, taken by the SECCHI inner Heliospheric Imager (HI-1) on the STEREO Ahead observatory on June 22, 2011 at 19:29:01 UT.

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Nick Gross @concernedphysicist.bsky.social · Jun 1

Great connection here! Indeed there is an aurora producing storm happening www.swpc.noaa.gov, though will likely have passed by this evening US time.

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Prof Lucie Green @luciegreen.bsky.social · Apr 25

Such lovely detail! Zoom in and discover the varied features of the Sun’s atmosphere.

Royal Observatory of Belgium @orb-ksb.bsky.social · Apr 24

☀️🛰️New mosaic image of Solar Orbiter! 🤩
In March 2025, @orb-ksb.bsky.social combined 200 high-res images of the Sun into a stunning mosaic. Each of those images is taken by our EUI telescope onboard Solar Orbiter when it was 77 million km from the Sun. 🔭🧪 www.esa.int/ESA_Multimed... @science.esa.int

Solar Orbiter’s widest high-res view of the Sun

Solar Orbiter’s widest high-resolution view of the Sun

www.esa.int

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ESA Technology @technology.esa.int · May 8

🛰️ 🛰️ ☀️ #Proba3 is now officially the world’s first precision formation flying mission! The mission team has achieved the desired precision – with the two spacecraft maintaining their relative position down to less than a millimetre while flying 150 metres apart! www.esa.int/Enabling_Sup...

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Dr. Craig DeForest ☀️ @craig.deforest.org · May 27

Amazing clarity from the NSF-funded Goode Solar Telescope at Big Bear Solar Observatory! ☀️🔭🧪

“Raindrops in the Sun’s Corona”: New Adaptive Optics Shows Stunning Details of our Star’s Atmosphere - NSO - National Solar Observatory

Scientists from the U.S. NSF National Solar Observatory and New Jersey Institute of Technology produced the finest images in the Sun’s corona to date. Using a new 'coronal adaptive optics' system that...

nso.edu

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Matthew J West @solarphysicist.bsky.social · May 27

Just wrapped up a fascinating day at the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research in Göttingen, discussing the Photospheric Magnetic Imager for the @esa #Vigil mission — including a tour of the facilities where both it will be and the Solar Orbiter PHI instrument were developed.

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Matthew J West @solarphysicist.bsky.social · May 21

Professor Jonathan Eastwood, lead for the @esa #Vigil MAG instrument, delivers his @ImperialCollegeLDN Inaugural Lecture:
🎓 Watch here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=jw6X...

The relentless sun: how do we live with severe space weather?

YouTube video by Imperial College London

www.youtube.com

Reposted by Matthew J West

Living Reviews | Solar Physics @livingrev-solphys.bsky.social · Mar 12

It's a good day to pitch our ongoing #PUNCH open-access article collection in the journal #SolarPhysics:
"The Polarimeter to Unify the Corona and Heliosphere (PUNCH) Mission: An Overview"
link.springer.com/collections/...

Article Collection Description:
PUNCH is a NASA Small Explorer (SMEX) mission to better understand how the mass and energy of the Sun’s corona become the solar wind that fills the solar system. Planned to start science operations 2025, four suitcase-sized satellites will work together to produce wide-field 3D images of the entire inner solar system around the clock.

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