Matthew J West

SMILE SXI can be used to track solar wind composition Abstract. Continuous monitoring of solar wind ion composition is essential for understanding solar-terrestrial interactions, particularly the Solar Wind Ch

Oooh, quite an exciting result ahead of the SMILE mission - it will be able to remotely observe and track solar wind composition.

academic.oup.com/rasti/advanc...

#heliophysics

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?

🎉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🌞💨🌍

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! 🌞🤖

Tagging this so the #heliophysics feed picks it up!

YouTube video by High Altitude Observatory HAO | NCAR Changing methodologies in solar physics 2025 05 21

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

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...

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.

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...

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

😆 I stand corrected

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

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

Oh awesome thanks for the contact!

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

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

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

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...

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)! ☀️🧪🔭⚛️

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

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...

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.

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

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.

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

🛰️ 🛰️ ☀️ #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...

“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...

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

Solar orbiter Phi flight spares

Max Plank vacuum chamber

Max Plank engineering room

Göttingen town centre

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.

YouTube video by Imperial College London The relentless sun: how do we live with severe space weather?

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

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.

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/...

SpaceX Launches NASA’s SPHEREx and PUNCH Missions (Gift Article) The SPHEREx telescope will create the most colorful map of the cosmos, while the four satellites of the PUNCH mission track the evolution of the solar wind in three dimensions.

It is a fine morning here in Denver though I am still groggy from taking the 5am flight from California. NYT has a great article on SPHEREx and PUNCH. Thanks, Katrina Miller! ☀️🔭🛰️🚀😎

The attacks on universities are speeding up, not slowing down

The university sector *must* band together and stop acquiescing in advance (looking at you Columbia)

bsky.app/profile/wsj....

at @AirbusintheUK for the @esa.int #Vigil Instrument Day to discuss the 6 instruments going 🚀 to L5 (side of the Sun-Earth line ☀️-🌍): Compact Coronagraph (CCOR); Heliospheric Imager (HI); Plasma Analyzer (PLA); Magnetometer (MAG); Photospheric Magnetic Field Imager (PMI); EUV Imager (JEDI)

Attending Max Alexander’s exhibition ‘Life in the Sun’s Atmosphere’ at #Lloyds of London: www.lloyds.com/about-lloyds.... Lloyd’s highlights extreme space weather risks—latest scenario shows potential $2.4trn global loss. The #ESA Vigil mission will help mitigate this