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mathewjowens.bsky.social
Space physicist doing a poor impersonation of a meteorologist at the University of Reading. https://mathewjowens.github.io/
589 posts 1,955 followers 317 following
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Posts 15 Comments 35

I just looked at my work calendar and tomorrow I have... no meetings?! I'm totally going to science.

submitted 1 day ago • 4 comments

Amazing. Now do one with a CME!

submitted 3 days ago • 0 comments

Not sure if my daughter has been baking or whether she's just got back from dropping the hobbits at Isenguard.

submitted 7 days ago • 0 comments

We just got our first-ever images of the Sun's south pole! Taken by ESA's Solar Orbiter, they reveal several interesting features, including a "speckled" magnetic field and heated plasma rising into the atmosphere. Story by me in The New York Times www.nytimes.com/2025/06/11/s...

submitted 8 days ago • 2 comments

"Sporadic E" is a region of charge in the Earth's atmosphere which can affect comms. It's caused by meteorites burning up and producing metallic ions. Wind shear blows the ions along the magnetic field, concentrating them into sharp layers. agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1029/...

submitted 9 days ago • 1 comment

The fact that you can clearly see the coronal mass ejection even with the star field present bodes very well indeed for PUNCH and space-weather forecasting. Looking forward to see what the images look like after the magical processing that @drzowie.bsky.social and co. are known for.

submitted 9 days ago • 0 comments

The contrast here between @iandunt.bsky.social's embarrassment at Trump/Musk and his awe at the unsung scientists who saved us from a pandemic is really something to behold. iandunt.substack.com/p/musk-vs-tr...

submitted 13 days ago • 1 comment

Some great data analysis tips here. Some seem so obvious to us working in the field that we sometimes forgot to tell them to newcomers! Extremely useful to collect them all in one place.

submitted 13 days ago • 0 comments

Recruiting for a scientific researcher right now is amazing and depressing. To avoid making tough decisions, I done a meme.

submitted 14 days ago • 0 comments

Time to run to work.

submitted 15 days ago • 1 comment

Here's how the solar cycle is progressing in terms of the "total heliospheric flux" - the amount of magnetic field dragged out into the solar system by the solar wind. Despite sunspot number being a lot higher this cycle than last, the total heliospheric flux has only just caught up.

submitted 16 days ago • 1 comment

I love the fact that on a star 150 million km away, which is 110 times as wide as the Earth, we have the ability to resolve features just 20 km across nso.edu/press-releas...

submitted 16 days ago • 0 comments

Looks like that fast CME is here already, about 2.5 hours before our predicted window. Funnily enough, we've *just* worked out why fast CMEs are often earlier than predicted and will be rolling this into the forecast soon! agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1029/...

submitted 19 days ago • 1 comment

A severe G4 storm watch has been issued for tomorrow thanks to a combination of fast solar winds, along with a fast CME (and others) from active region 4100. Hopefully aurora will be visible in central parts of the UK but may battle with daylight… 🌞🛰️🌍

submitted 19 days ago • 0 comments

There's a fast CME heading into some fast solar wind and some pre-existing slower CMEs. We're currently putting arrival at noon-to-midnight tomorrow, but this forecast may change as more observations become available. Updates here: research.reading.ac.uk/met-spate/hu...

submitted 20 days ago • 7 comments