iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Matthew J West @solarphysicist.bsky.social · 12/12/2025

📣 New outreach poster: ESA’s Vigil Mission ☀️💨🛰️💨🌍 The Space-weather “reporter” will monitor the Sun from the Lagrange point 5, reporting 24/7 solar activity days before it reaches Earth. www.esa.int/var/esa/stor...

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Matthew J West @solarphysicist.bsky.social · 19/11/2025

Proud to have contributed to the new SCOSTEP roadmap for 2026–30! SCOSTEP = the global body coordinating research on Sun–Earth connections. The new programme, COURSE, lays out the scientific priorities for the next 5 years. Exciting times ahead for heliophysics! link.springer.com/article/10.1...

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Matthew J West @solarphysicist.bsky.social · 14/11/2025

Proud to see ESA’s Vigil mission featured in the CRO Forum’s new report on space-related risks. From L5, Vigil will boost early warning for solar storms — a key step for protecting critical infrastructure on Earth ☀️💨🛰️🌍 📄 thecroforum.org/wp-content/u...

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Matthew J West @solarphysicist.bsky.social · 04/11/2025

Here's a picture of me *not* driving an imaginary car 🚗 — but explaining how the consistent, calibrated nature of Vigil’s ☀️💨🛰️🌍data products will make them ideal for training and deployment with machine learning and AI forecasting tools. In ESWW2025 TDM13: events.spacepole.be/event/222/se...

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Matthew J West @solarphysicist.bsky.social · 22/10/2025

I like making confuse-o-grams that include *all* the details. Help me make this more confusing - what can I add that I'm missing?

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Matthew J West @solarphysicist.bsky.social · 21/10/2025

🎉Happy Hamilton Day! Sir William Hamilton gave us Hamiltonian mechanics⚙️ His formulation H=T+V underpins orbital dynamics, spacecraft trajectories, and plasma physics No Hamiltonian Mechanics→No knowledge of L5 Lagrange point→No perfect spot for a space-weather mission-ESA’s Vigil🌞💨🌍

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Matthew J West @solarphysicist.bsky.social · 11/10/2025

Fantastic few days at the Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies with the brilliant Peter Gallagher — great discussions on #AI and ESA’s #Vigil mission. Exciting times ahead: AI forecasting will be helping us very soon! 🌞🤖

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Matthew J West @solarphysicist.bsky.social · 17/06/2025

Another day, another solar and heliophysics first — @ORB_KSB and @esa.int have created a unique eclipse in space! 🌍☀️🌘 The first formation-flying coronagraph: two spacecraft flying 150 m apart, perfectly aligned to block the Sun and reveal its hot corona. Find out more: www.esa.int/Enabling_Sup...

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Matthew J West @solarphysicist.bsky.social · 05/06/2025

Looking at X-ray Flux Monitors today—instruments that detect solar X-ray bursts. They're used in #SpaceWeather☀️☔ studies, helping understand solar☀️flares that can disrupt comms📡, satellites & aviation✈️. Attached an X-ray light curve from 2014 showing confined flares- with no associated eruptions

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Matthew J West @solarphysicist.bsky.social · 04/06/2025

The Sun 🌞 — our source of space weather ☔ — needs constant watching. Who knows what it’ll throw at us next? @ESA #Vigil ☀️👁️‍🗨️🌍. imgs.xkcd.com/comics/check...

https://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/check_engine.png

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Matthew J West @solarphysicist.bsky.social · 03/06/2025

Wrapping up another fascinating @ESA #Vigil👁️‍🗨 instrument day — at Leonardo S.p.A. Florence Italy — focused on the Vigil Heliospheric Imager. HI will be instrumental (pun intended) in tracking Coronal Mass Ejections💨 & space weather☔ from Sun🌞 to Earth🌍. Heres a representative STEREO HI image Jun 2011

Image of the solar corona, taken by the SECCHI inner Heliospheric Imager (HI-1) on the STEREO Ahead observatory on June 22, 2011 at 19:29:01 UT.

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Matthew J West @solarphysicist.bsky.social · 27/05/2025

Just wrapped up a fascinating day at the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research in Göttingen, discussing the Photospheric Magnetic Imager for the @esa #Vigil mission — including a tour of the facilities where both it will be and the Solar Orbiter PHI instrument were developed.

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Matthew J West @solarphysicist.bsky.social · 08/03/2025

Attending Max Alexander’s exhibition ‘Life in the Sun’s Atmosphere’ at #Lloyds of London: www.lloyds.com/about-lloyds.... Lloyd’s highlights extreme space weather risks—latest scenario shows potential $2.4trn global loss. The #ESA Vigil mission will help mitigate this

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Matthew J West @solarphysicist.bsky.social · 12/01/2025

Mickey the space cat, the big boss at #esa #estec, judging me for going home and depriving him of ear massages

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