James Paul Mason
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starfleetjames.bsky.social
James Paul Mason
@starfleetjames.bsky.social
heliophysicist + astrophysicist (solar/stellar) + aerospace engineer @jhuapl, formerly @LASPatCU and @nasa | principal investigator of @SunCETcubesat for @NASASun
Oh and for those interested, here's the graphic without all the PBR impacts. It's a nice complement to the Decadal (imho) and something I plan to maintain as a living document going forward.
July 11, 2025 at 7:47 PM
It is really depressing that all of the excitement from the forward-looking Decadal -- a Congressionally-mandated major planning report we expend tremendous community effort preparing once per decade -- has been usurped by the decimation the administration is proposing.
July 11, 2025 at 7:47 PM
The Heliophysics System Laboratory is a term that was coined less than a year ago with the release of our Heliophysics Decadal Survey, referring to the full complement of all of these observatories regardless of funding agency; it also includes major modeling efforts not depicted
July 11, 2025 at 7:47 PM
There are similar graphics out already that focus on NASA, so I wanted to make a graphic that also includes the impacts at NOAA and NSF as well (the NSF observatories that appear safe in this graphic are actually just ones that don't have detail in the PBR so who knows...)
July 11, 2025 at 7:47 PM
It will take us decades to build back to where we are right now. In the meantime, other countries (China in particular) are building their own space weather capabilities and at least in China's case, are unlikely to share information with us.
July 11, 2025 at 7:47 PM
The first of these dedicated to solar observation launched in 1994. The most recent in March this year. They are all still running. If we just turn them off, we can't just turn them back on later if the political landscape changes.
July 11, 2025 at 7:47 PM
I kept waiting for it to turn to funny 1 star reviews, similar to the series of posters for national parks highlighting 1 star reviews like this one
June 9, 2025 at 10:41 PM
This time around, we made little Teflon molds for our Arathane+cabosil (fancy curing space rubber basically) that make sure the solar panels can handle the chatter of a rocket launch and the day-to-day of being in the lab while we go through integration and testing for @suncetcubesat.bsky.social
April 19, 2025 at 9:34 PM
To learn more about the award, eligibility, and see past awards, check out our webpage. (The new winners will be posted there soon).

spd.aas.org/prizes/popul...
SPD Popular Media Awards - AAS Solar Physics Division
The Solar Physics Division of the American Astronomical Society solicits nominations for the Popular Media Award, which is awarded annually to authors of popular articles / new media (e.g., interactiv...
spd.aas.org
April 19, 2025 at 9:14 PM
In the student category, Annelia Anderson for the article "Johannes Kepler and the Case of the Disappearing Sunspots”, published on @astrobites.bsky.social

@astroannelia.bsky.social

astrobites.org/2024/08/29/j...
Johannes Kepler and the Case of the Disappearing Sunspots
Today’s paper uses Johannes Kepler’s pre-telescope sunspot drawings to re-examine irregular 17th century solar activity.
astrobites.org
April 19, 2025 at 9:14 PM
In the scientist category, Ryan French for the corpus of work throughout the year on TikTok, YouTube, and other social media; as well as an article on @spacedotcom.bsky.social

@ryanjfrench.bsky.social

www.tiktok.com/@ryanjfrench

www.youtube.com/@Sun.Scientist

www.space.com/return-auror...
Dr. Ryan French ☀️ Sun Science's Creator Profile
www.tiktok.com
April 19, 2025 at 9:14 PM
In the journalist category, Kathryn Schulz for the article "What a Major Solar Storm Could Do to Our Plane", published in @newyorker.com

www.newyorker.com/magazine/202...
What a Major Solar Storm Could Do to Our Planet
Disturbances on the sun may have the potential to devastate our power grid and communication systems. When the next big storm arrives, will we be prepared for it?
www.newyorker.com
April 19, 2025 at 9:14 PM