Mathew Owens

It's free after you've paid.

Everybody's talking about it. Lily Allen's break-up album is sooo yesterday.

Nice! Congrats.

A time series plot of observed (red line) and probabilistic forecast (blue/purple lines) of solar wind speed at Earth, for the last 6 days and for 8 days into the future.

The data-assimilative solar wind forecast (BRaVDA-HUXt) is really doing very well lately. That is all. Carry on.

swxforecastlab.org/forecasts.html

We're certainly more closely monitoring it and paying more attention than ever.

Looks like Parker Solar Probe got hit by a fairly fast CME shortly before it began its latest dive into the solar atmosphere.

New forecasts and visualisations available here: swxforecastlab.org/forecasts.html

It's simple. There are *three* buckets. Only three. With the fourth bucket called "enabling and strengthening UK R&D"

Let's start by being 100% clear on this one point:

QR funding != curiosity-driven research.

Journalists, please take note of what I'm calling the new Stewart Lee ruling. "Anyone who has left the UK specifically to avoid paying tax has lost the right to have valid opinions on UK public spending and thus they should not be reported in the media."

Shocking from UKRI: no more aircraft observations, investing in "land-based capabilities and remote sensing equipment."

The atmosphere is not land-based(!) and remote sensing can only provide an approximation of what FAAM could do. And I say that as someone who should gain from such a pivot.

Hey space people, I'm looking for an expert with good technical knowledge of Rocket Lab's Neutron rocket – particularly on the reusability/constellation aspect – to comment in a story I'm working on.

If that's you, or you know someone, do get in touch.

jdaoca[at]gmail[dot]com

Thanks!

Thanks to @iansample.bsky.social at the Guardian for covering the devastating funding cuts that are being proposed for UK (astro)physics, and the dire impact these would have on young researchers. Will UKRI/STFC reconsider? Will the UKGov step in?🤞👩‍🔬🧪⚛️🔭

www.theguardian.com/science/2026...

Nice - I'll check it out.

Our paper on machine learning assisted improvement of STEREO beacon data led by @lelouedecj.bsky.social was included in the recent STEREO science highlights!
paper: J. Le Louëdec et al. 2025 Space Weather doi.org/10.1029/2025...
highlights: stereo-ssc.nascom.nasa.gov/publications...

Brilliant.

Reading has seen its first dry day of this wet streak, ending a 37 day streak of consecutive days with rainfall which beat the previous record of 23 days by 14 days. An exceptionally wet period that is unprecedented since daily rainfall records began in Reading in 1908.

Forecast summary for WSA-HUXt, but using UK Met Office estimates of CME speed and direction, rather than NASA M2M

And just to make the point about forecast uncertainty - UK Met Office forecasters are much less confident that the CMEs will arrive at Earth.

Forecast summary for BRaVDA-HUXt.

We've got a couple of Earth-directed CMEs, with arrival forecast from midday Weds onwards. Both WSA and the data assimilation version (BRaVDA) have broad uncertainties. Though they have been capturing the solar wind structure well recently.

More detail here:
swxforecastlab.org/forecasts.html

Yeah, big space weather implications. Both in terms of protecting the hardware and in terms of transmitting the data through the ionosphere at high rates.

At least you didn't stick the knife in and tell me your parents like them.

Aren't you a bit young for Elbow? #dadrock

From Measurements to Solar Wind Model Initial Conditions - Eos A new method shows how solar wind measurements at Earth can be used to define initial conditions for solar wind models to reduce their need for solar magnetic maps and decrease their uncertainty.

Our @tamersto.bsky.social presents a summary of a recent paper led by @mathewjowens.bsky.social on backmapping of solar wind measured at L1 to the Sun in @eos.org.
eos.org/editor-highl...

Egyptian Goose gosling. On mud.

I think we're now up to a record-breaking 29 consecutive days of rain at the @uniofreading.bsky.social Atmospheric Observatory. On another soggy commute, I noticed that some on campus are dealing with this better than me.

UK ‘could lose generation of scientists’ with cuts to projects and research facilities UK’s research funding body says best scientists are taking posts overseas due to lack of job stability at home

Start your weekend with @iansample.bsky.social’s coverage of the financial problems faced by UK astronomers, with contributions from RAS President Mike Lockwood and Astronomer Royal for Scotland Catherine Heymans @astroroyalscot.bsky.social

www.theguardian.com/science/2026...

Gaming of bibliometrics?

Missed a delivery, so I'm trying to register for the Royal Mail app. But I can't because the verification email is never delivered.

That would have been a better verse than "rain on your wedding day".

Reminds me of the racoon scene in Elf.

Yeah, the hypocrisy really sticks in the old craw.

Yeah, good, strong response there. Appreciated.