@benclewer.bsky.social
Space Weather Research Fellow at Surrey Space Centre. Aviation radiation safety. Instrument systems engineering. Hobby wargamer and Ipswich Town #itfc fan. He/Him. PhD
@braintumourcharity.bsky.social
24.01.2026 20:13 — 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
We successfully completed our half marathon walk. I'm so proud of my wife Hayley @hlpilch.bsky.social who has an inoperable brain tumour and she managed the whole distance!
Any last donations would be greatly appreciated at
www.justgiving.com/team/brainyp...
Not sure this counts? Street lights are too bright atm
19.01.2026 23:52 — 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0People in my town (Southern UK) have seen the aurora tonight, but sadly too cloudy when I looked
19.01.2026 23:26 — 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0
I'm doing a half marathon walk with my wife next month to raise money for th Brain Tumour Charity. Any donations over this festive period would be greatly appreciated 👍
Merry Christmas all!
www.justgiving.com/page/benclew...
This week has been a tough week, trying to communicate about an important space weather topic (the Airbus incident), through all the noise of instant arm chair experts.
Especially those claiming about poor communication and then go spurting rubbish themselves.
One can only do so much, but we try.
It wasn't caused by intense solar radiation. The incident happened under normal radiation conditions, but the fault would cause greater impacts during intense radiation events.
You need to read the Airbus statement more carefully, and not follow journalists misinterpretation
NEW: I just wrote up an explainer for the BBC about Airbus's recall of 6,000 aircraft late last week - after a malfunction caused by space radiation.
Includes some detail on why this extraordinary phenomenon can happen and why we need to prepare for it more.
www.bbc.com/future/artic...
All excellent points too
30.11.2025 15:52 — 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0For background levels yes. For enhanced radiation events, no it is not taken seriously. All existing standards are advisory and not compulsory.
Radiation levels can increase by 1000s of times in a short period and standard error detection and correction could easily be overwhelmed.
We have released our expert comment from our research group on the recent Airbus event
29.11.2025 15:48 — 👍 2 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0It would be difficult to say without knowing the system and the update changes etc. However, to me at least, this would indicate a change in some error detection and correction software.
Our work has been to point out that a significant radiation storm could overwhelm error correction systems
Yes that will most likely be the impact
28.11.2025 20:47 — 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0This vindicates all our work at Surrey on this topic!
28.11.2025 20:46 — 👍 2 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0We have been warning about this for a long time
28.11.2025 20:07 — 👍 2 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
EASA issues Emergency Airworthiness Directive for Airbus A320 family aircraft Elevator aileron computers (ELAC). ad.easa.europa.eu/ad/2025-0268-E
28.11.2025 19:20 — 👍 68 🔁 18 💬 4 📌 7Our research group in the UK have been warning about this for decades. Hopefully our message might start to be taken seriously
28.11.2025 19:59 — 👍 5 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0
People might start believing us when we say solar radiation could have huge impacts to aircraft avionics!
#spaceweather #avgeek #aviation
BBC News - Airbus requests immediate modifications to thousands of aircraft
www.bbc.com/news/article...
It's incredibly exciting to be working on this program. The first set of radiation data across a range of altitudes during a GLE!
27.11.2025 17:03 — 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
World-first radiation data through Earth’s lower atmosphere has been collected in a collaboration between the Met Office, @uniofsurrey.bsky.social and @knmi.nl.
Find out more in our blog 👇
www.metoffice.gov.uk/blog/2025/wo...
The official press release can be found here
www.surrey.ac.uk/news/world-f...
I conducted an interview for Reuters last week on our recent atmospheric radiation instruments, fitted to weather balloon radiosondes. You can find the video link below - This is the first time solar radiation storm data has been collected through the entire depth of the atmosphere!
#spaceweather
You’ve been kidnapped. The characters from the last TV show you watched are trying to rescue you. Who’s coming to save you?
Guess, I'll be okay!
One on the left is much easier to take in, but use the layout of the right one with the text left aligned
23.11.2025 09:03 — 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0Aircraft will have received some increase in dose rates today. Initial results from model runs and airborne data from the UK is being analysed at the moment
11.11.2025 15:28 — 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0This triggered a significant GLE with ground monitors seeing 70% increase. Airborne monitors are still indicating a moderate radiation environment for aircraft
11.11.2025 15:25 — 👍 3 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0Ongoing solar radiation storm originating at 10:15 this morning. Initial airborne data and model results are indicating this was an ICAO severe radiation event for aviation.
Airborne instruments are still operating to collect the end of the event
#spaceweather #aviation #avgeek
I hope everyone at #ESWW2025 has a lovely time. Sadly the travel was too prohibitive for us at Surrey for the limited sessions related to our area.
Enjoy the scenery and I hope the aurora shows up!
Sadly not 🤣 Nice of the printer to remove it's print head cover though
21.09.2025 14:56 — 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
Safe to say that the AI spaghetti detection still needs work for my printer...
21.09.2025 14:12 — 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0
