Mathew Owens
@mathewjowens.bsky.social
Space physicist doing a poor impersonation of a meteorologist at the University of Reading.
https://mathewjowens.github.io/
https://mathewjowens.github.io/
Reposted by Mathew Owens
Have you heard? There are TWO CMEs directed right at Earth that could cause geomagnetic storming starting tomorrow.
Here is an animation of some of these blasts coming from the Sun (center) to Earth (black dot). This comes from the HUXt model.
#heliophysics
Here is an animation of some of these blasts coming from the Sun (center) to Earth (black dot). This comes from the HUXt model.
#heliophysics
November 10, 2025 at 6:32 PM
Have you heard? There are TWO CMEs directed right at Earth that could cause geomagnetic storming starting tomorrow.
Here is an animation of some of these blasts coming from the Sun (center) to Earth (black dot). This comes from the HUXt model.
#heliophysics
Here is an animation of some of these blasts coming from the Sun (center) to Earth (black dot). This comes from the HUXt model.
#heliophysics
Reposted by Mathew Owens
📊 Latest HUXt forecast shows 2 CMEs from AR4274 arriving on 12 Nov at ~4 & 15UT respectively. AR4274 is delivering a one-two punch!⚡️🥊 G2+ storm conditions increasingly likely. Aurora prospects strong for northern UK despite poor weather forecast.
#SpaceWeather #StephsStormWatch
#SpaceWeather #StephsStormWatch
November 10, 2025 at 4:40 PM
📊 Latest HUXt forecast shows 2 CMEs from AR4274 arriving on 12 Nov at ~4 & 15UT respectively. AR4274 is delivering a one-two punch!⚡️🥊 G2+ storm conditions increasingly likely. Aurora prospects strong for northern UK despite poor weather forecast.
#SpaceWeather #StephsStormWatch
#SpaceWeather #StephsStormWatch
Reposted by Mathew Owens
The HUXt model forecasts a direct hit but at a slightly later time of 12th Nov ~3:30 UT. Weather forecast still looks bad... 🫣
November 10, 2025 at 9:19 AM
The HUXt model forecasts a direct hit but at a slightly later time of 12th Nov ~3:30 UT. Weather forecast still looks bad... 🫣
Reposted by Mathew Owens
![Cartoon by Stephen Collins for The Guardian. Script as follows:
[scene is Winston Churchill in a bbc studio, giving his 'finest hour' speech]
1
CHURCHILL:
The whole fury and might of the enemy must very soon be turned on us.
2
CHURCHILL:
Hitler knows that he will have to break us in this Island or lose the war.
3
CHURCHILL:
If we can stand up to him, all Europe may be free
and the life of the world may move forward into broad, sun-
BBC PRESENTER:
Thank you prime minister
4
BBC PRESENTER:
Mr hitler, your response?
5
HITLER [in the studio]:
Vell zis is hysterical woke nonsense as usual from mr Churchill
6
HITLER:
What we are proposing -
CHURCHILL:
Hang on
7
HITLER:
Let me finish - what we are proposing eez a simple power-sharing arrangement -
8
CHURCHILL:
What's he doing here
BBC PRESENTER:
It's important we hear both sides of the debate
9
CHURCHILL:
This isn't a debate
You don't debate fascists
10
HITLER:
Oh here we go with ze Godwins law!
11
HITLER:
Why must you people always compare ze things you don't like to 'fascists, Nazis, Hitler'...
CHURCHILL:
Because you are a fascist Nazi Hit-
12
HITLER [standing up, saluting]:
RAUSS!
BBC PRESENTER:
*Please* Mr Churchill let him speak
[ends]](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:4m3we4apbjayclzcnhwe3pfp/bafkreibw4ldc3fhslbvxgy2oqrof2oys5kpgh7zu6a5f3usmx3lf4547qm@jpeg)
My 13yo son just managed to perfectly lampoon my AV obsession:
"They should restart the fireworks. The sound and picture are out of sync."
"They should restart the fireworks. The sound and picture are out of sync."
November 7, 2025 at 7:45 PM
My 13yo son just managed to perfectly lampoon my AV obsession:
"They should restart the fireworks. The sound and picture are out of sync."
"They should restart the fireworks. The sound and picture are out of sync."
All fairly low hit confidence though. We might get a log-jam of six CMEs, we might get nothing.
The HUXt model shows just how busy it has been in terms of solar activity - lots of random features and arrivals expected over the next few days. It'll be important to keep an eye on things (aka keeping my eyes glued to a screen 🤣)
November 6, 2025 at 2:07 PM
All fairly low hit confidence though. We might get a log-jam of six CMEs, we might get nothing.
"We'd like to invite you to a breakfast meeting."
No. Arrange work meetings in work hours.
No. Arrange work meetings in work hours.
November 4, 2025 at 5:00 PM
"We'd like to invite you to a breakfast meeting."
No. Arrange work meetings in work hours.
No. Arrange work meetings in work hours.
"Model contains same biases as its training data" shocker.
When ChatGPT was asked to rate 40,000 résumés, it ranked the older male candidates as better quality than the younger female applicants.
Age and gender distortion in online media and large language models - Nature
Stereotypes of age-related gender bias are socially distorted, as evidenced by the age gap in the representations of women and men across various media and algorithms, despite no systematic age differ...
www.nature.com
November 3, 2025 at 9:10 AM
"Model contains same biases as its training data" shocker.
The HUXt ensemble: Because at least now you know how much we don't know.
The HUXt model currently shows the filament CME arriving ahead of NOAA SWPC predictions - at ~18 UT on Nov 1. Note the -13.2/+27.4 hr uncertainty, yikes! The plot also shows speed ramping down with another CIR/HSS beginning around 11/7.
go.theauroraguy.com/huxtmodel
go.theauroraguy.com/huxtmodel
November 1, 2025 at 8:55 AM
The HUXt ensemble: Because at least now you know how much we don't know.
Reposted by Mathew Owens
The voting system is pretty good, the recommended candidate list looks reasonable, and giving the chair your proxy votes against the ‘Restore Trust’ (🤢)-backed insurance motion, which is frankly unhinged.
Takes seconds. Please vote.
Takes seconds. Please vote.
If you're a member of the National Trust remember to vote for council members by midnight tonight.
Use the Quick Vote option.
Entryist pressure group Reform Trust is trying to seize control. Stop them
Voting is quick and easy if your membership card is at hand
secure.cesvotes.com/V3-3-0/nt25/...
Use the Quick Vote option.
Entryist pressure group Reform Trust is trying to seize control. Stop them
Voting is quick and easy if your membership card is at hand
secure.cesvotes.com/V3-3-0/nt25/...
Log In
Welcome to the National Trust 2025 voting website, hosted by independent voting service provider Civica Election Services.
secure.cesvotes.com
October 31, 2025 at 4:33 PM
The voting system is pretty good, the recommended candidate list looks reasonable, and giving the chair your proxy votes against the ‘Restore Trust’ (🤢)-backed insurance motion, which is frankly unhinged.
Takes seconds. Please vote.
Takes seconds. Please vote.
Just remembering my first US halloween. I dressed as a "Pirate of Punzance":
A pumpkin on my belt (squash buckle)
A map on my arse (pirate booty)
A dollar bill on each earlobe (a buck an ear)
Nobody got any of the jokes and just looked at me odd.
A pumpkin on my belt (squash buckle)
A map on my arse (pirate booty)
A dollar bill on each earlobe (a buck an ear)
Nobody got any of the jokes and just looked at me odd.
October 31, 2025 at 1:53 PM
Just remembering my first US halloween. I dressed as a "Pirate of Punzance":
A pumpkin on my belt (squash buckle)
A map on my arse (pirate booty)
A dollar bill on each earlobe (a buck an ear)
Nobody got any of the jokes and just looked at me odd.
A pumpkin on my belt (squash buckle)
A map on my arse (pirate booty)
A dollar bill on each earlobe (a buck an ear)
Nobody got any of the jokes and just looked at me odd.
Reposted by Mathew Owens
We just rolled out v0h of the PUNCH data pipeline. Most of Aug and Sep are now up. By Sunday we should have reprocessed it all. The L2 data include 4-min-cadence images of 3I/Atlas for those who wish to verify it is not an alien spaceship doing maneuvers. 🧪🚀🛰️🔭☀️
punch.space.swri.edu/punch_scienc...
punch.space.swri.edu/punch_scienc...
October 30, 2025 at 10:21 PM
We just rolled out v0h of the PUNCH data pipeline. Most of Aug and Sep are now up. By Sunday we should have reprocessed it all. The L2 data include 4-min-cadence images of 3I/Atlas for those who wish to verify it is not an alien spaceship doing maneuvers. 🧪🚀🛰️🔭☀️
punch.space.swri.edu/punch_scienc...
punch.space.swri.edu/punch_scienc...
I do love a time series. And these are some proper good time series.
Humanity’s history is a continuous battle between us and the microbes. For most of our history, we were on the losing side. It wasn’t even close. We were losing very decisively.
October 30, 2025 at 1:10 PM
I do love a time series. And these are some proper good time series.
Giveaways that you're in an applied physics department.
October 30, 2025 at 10:15 AM
Giveaways that you're in an applied physics department.
Reposted by Mathew Owens
Alrighty, ready to see something really cool? (and maybe a little nauseating)
The evolution of Hurricane Melissa's mesovortices at peak strength.
The evolution of Hurricane Melissa's mesovortices at peak strength.
October 29, 2025 at 8:10 PM
Alrighty, ready to see something really cool? (and maybe a little nauseating)
The evolution of Hurricane Melissa's mesovortices at peak strength.
The evolution of Hurricane Melissa's mesovortices at peak strength.
Reposted by Mathew Owens
Always wanted to show it like this. You can just about see the sine wave which marks the boundary between the hexagon and the rest of the planet, though it's very subtle.
October 22, 2025 at 10:20 PM
Always wanted to show it like this. You can just about see the sine wave which marks the boundary between the hexagon and the rest of the planet, though it's very subtle.
Reposted by Mathew Owens
For folk of a certain vintage (and geekiness), this is weapons-grade nostalgia.
An animated loop basd on the games of the ZX Spectrum 8 bit micro from the 1980s
This was made in photoshop and Blender and just a fun little tribute to my all time favourite home computer
#zxspectrum #retrogaming #pixelart #8bitart
This was made in photoshop and Blender and just a fun little tribute to my all time favourite home computer
#zxspectrum #retrogaming #pixelart #8bitart
October 27, 2025 at 8:09 AM
For folk of a certain vintage (and geekiness), this is weapons-grade nostalgia.
Reposted by Mathew Owens
I continue to hold that the entire premise underlying all of these metrics is extremely flawed, and that what it all comes down to is unimaginative managers who are content to offload scientist performance reviews to publishing companies, resulting in a perverse incentive structure. 🧵
Just what we need in astronomy: a metric that rewards those who never do any work, or whose names begin with “Z”. 🔭🧪
www.nature.com/articles/d41...
www.nature.com/articles/d41...
Google Scholar tool gives extra credit to first and last authors
Researchers welcome the initiative, but say it doesn’t go far enough to capture the nuance of researcher productivity and impact.
www.nature.com
October 26, 2025 at 2:57 PM
I continue to hold that the entire premise underlying all of these metrics is extremely flawed, and that what it all comes down to is unimaginative managers who are content to offload scientist performance reviews to publishing companies, resulting in a perverse incentive structure. 🧵
Reposted by Mathew Owens
Let's unravel the mystery of Saturn's polar hexagon.
A jet stream speeds around the pole at 320 km/h (200 mph). That’s common among planets, but what's not is that it oscillates up and down *very* stably. Each low point of this sine wave becomes a corner of a hexagon, when projected onto a sphere:
A jet stream speeds around the pole at 320 km/h (200 mph). That’s common among planets, but what's not is that it oscillates up and down *very* stably. Each low point of this sine wave becomes a corner of a hexagon, when projected onto a sphere:
October 22, 2025 at 5:57 PM
Let's unravel the mystery of Saturn's polar hexagon.
A jet stream speeds around the pole at 320 km/h (200 mph). That’s common among planets, but what's not is that it oscillates up and down *very* stably. Each low point of this sine wave becomes a corner of a hexagon, when projected onto a sphere:
A jet stream speeds around the pole at 320 km/h (200 mph). That’s common among planets, but what's not is that it oscillates up and down *very* stably. Each low point of this sine wave becomes a corner of a hexagon, when projected onto a sphere:
Reposted by Mathew Owens
“Now Scientific American has updated and re-released what it calls the “classic graphic” that shows that a human on a bicycle—able to coast, or freewheel, without pedaling—remains the world’s most energy effecient traveler.” @carltonreid.com on the re-release of the iconic graph in @forbes.com.
October 17, 2025 at 12:52 PM
“Now Scientific American has updated and re-released what it calls the “classic graphic” that shows that a human on a bicycle—able to coast, or freewheel, without pedaling—remains the world’s most energy effecient traveler.” @carltonreid.com on the re-release of the iconic graph in @forbes.com.
Whoever decided that the "Report" button should be right next to the "Archive" button in Microsoft Outlook -- and that there should be no confirmation or undo options -- needs a stern talking to.
October 17, 2025 at 2:08 PM
Whoever decided that the "Report" button should be right next to the "Archive" button in Microsoft Outlook -- and that there should be no confirmation or undo options -- needs a stern talking to.
Reposted by Mathew Owens
yeah, look .... not sure who needs to hear this (actually, everyone does), but turn off the stupid AI suggestions in your search results, and def. go and use @wikipedia.org a lot more.
I use it as my first-go-to knowledge base resource.
Follow the trail of citations to primary sources.
It's good.
I use it as my first-go-to knowledge base resource.
Follow the trail of citations to primary sources.
It's good.
wikipedia's data shows that AI is siphoning traffic away from the site, which is a danger to its sustainability. ironically Wikipedia is more important than ever to users who want reliable information instead of slop, and to AI companies that need it for training data www.404media.co/wikipedia-sa...
Wikipedia Says AI Is Causing a Dangerous Decline in Human Visitors
“With fewer visits to Wikipedia, fewer volunteers may grow and enrich the content, and fewer individual donors may support this work.”
www.404media.co
October 17, 2025 at 3:35 AM
yeah, look .... not sure who needs to hear this (actually, everyone does), but turn off the stupid AI suggestions in your search results, and def. go and use @wikipedia.org a lot more.
I use it as my first-go-to knowledge base resource.
Follow the trail of citations to primary sources.
It's good.
I use it as my first-go-to knowledge base resource.
Follow the trail of citations to primary sources.
It's good.
Reposted by Mathew Owens
I don't mean to shatter anyone's illusions about the academy, but there's literally no information anyone ever got from a professor that wasn't always also available from... reading.
October 16, 2025 at 8:38 AM
I don't mean to shatter anyone's illusions about the academy, but there's literally no information anyone ever got from a professor that wasn't always also available from... reading.
Reposted by Mathew Owens
What possible use could the "People Who Teach You How To Understand and Work With Ideas and Information" have in the age of "The Machine That Punches Out Information of Questionable Quality"?
Wow. Just wow.
"Students pay premium prices for information that AI now delivers instantly and for free. A business student can ask ChatGPT to explain supply chain optimization or generate market analysis in seconds. The traditional lecture-and-test model faces its Blockbuster moment."
"Students pay premium prices for information that AI now delivers instantly and for free. A business student can ask ChatGPT to explain supply chain optimization or generate market analysis in seconds. The traditional lecture-and-test model faces its Blockbuster moment."
When Knowledge is Free, What are Professors For?
Higher Education Must Stop Competing with AI on Information and Start Teaching What Machines Can’t Do
www.forbes.com
October 16, 2025 at 8:27 AM
What possible use could the "People Who Teach You How To Understand and Work With Ideas and Information" have in the age of "The Machine That Punches Out Information of Questionable Quality"?