PlasmaNerd

@plasmanerd.bsky.social

994 Followers 813 Following

A Space Weather/Heliophysics researcher, enjoying the scientific nomadic life, and always hunting for more Aurora experiences.

A blurb from the Substack post. "The hardest part wasn't recognising a red line after it had clearly been crossed. The hardest part was wondering whether I had quietly moved the line myself" Dr PlasmaNerd The Oath Ep 4: Entering the fray from PlasmaNerd.Substack.com
Two pieces of paper are shown with the first overlapping the second. They are filled with boxes and little drawings. It was my attempt at a graduate student of storyboarding my thesis to help me organize thoughts and figure out what to write next.
Redwing black bird splashes in a bird bath.
A food truck called Poutine Express sits open on the right with tables out on the left side. The truck states they are Authentically Canadian with a Canadian flag and pictures of all the types of Poutine you can buy ... All places and not just Lisbon deserve this type of truck.
A tiny yellow bird can be seen near the middle of the image of the tree, hiding amongst the pine needles and pine cones.
A picture of an inlet with still water, the left starts barren, but as you move right there's more trees and the reflection is almost as sharp as the trees themselves.
An indigo bunting sits in a tree filled with pinecones. The grey sky and grey color of the branches and pine cones off set the indigo bunting.
A Summer Tanager sits on a branch with vibrant green leaves
A slide from Heliophysics science mission directorate's town hall. On the left is a picture from the Sun and under it says The Shift: from vision to implementation. The right has a table that has column labels "traditional Focus" "2026 Strategic Focus" and "Benefit" The way we use to do/fund NASA science was "Disciplinary and Mission Silos", "Curiosity -Driven investigations", and "Fragmented Theory, Knowledge Building, Operations". This year they are switching to "Strategic Purpose themes", "Outcome-driven Research" and "Integrated Knowledge Chain". The supposed benefits are "Alignment with NASA and National Priorities", "Actionable 'Environmental Intelligence '" and "Faster Transition to application".
And with a miracle the luggage came just a moment later. Looking out a raindrop filled window down at a cart arriving with the late luggage. One man is pulling it out while a woman scans it it.
Looking through a windows with raindrops out onto the airplane parking lot? There's an empty gate, trucks and equipment, grounded planes in. The background, a plane taking off in the upper right background and New York skyline even further back.
A common yellow throat sits on a branch of a young tree in a meadow.
On a gray day we have a tree trunk on the left side with lots of small branches that look dead with pine cones still attached. About a third of the way up is a horizontal branch. Almost to the right hand side the branch splits and there's a bit that goes up. On the top of the branch sits this small thin bird which is a Great Crested Flycatcher.
A blue bunting sits on a branch a bit fluffed out, showing off his blue feathers. The tree had a tone of branches on the left leading to the trunk on the right. The branches all have new leaves that are bright green.
A blue-gray gnat catcher sitting on a branch with his head to the side looking down at the photographer. The tree is showing new bright green leaves and the sky is bright blue in the background.
A man checks his phone standing next to a statue of Philip Plynott
From science.nasa.gov Pluto nearly fills the frame in this image from NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft taken on July 13, 2015. Credit: NASA
A purple martin sitting on a white rod with a white background giving the photographer a bit of a side eye.
Description from NASA The Artemis II crew captured this view of Earth setting on April 6, 2026, as they flew around the Moon. As the astronauts flew over the Moon’s far side, the crew photographed and described terrain features including impact craters, ancient lava flows, and surface cracks and ridges formed as the Moon slowly evolved over time. They also noted differences in color, brightness and texture, which provide clues that help scientists understand the composition and history of the lunar surface. The image is reminiscent of the iconic Earthrise image taken by astronaut Bill Anders 58 years earlier as the Apollo 8 crew flew around the Moon. The Apollo 8 mission was the first crewed spacecraft to circumnavigate the Moon. For more imagery from the mission, visit our Artemis II Multimedia Page. Image Credit NASA, Artemis II mission around the Moon
A really janky movie of an osprey flying across the water... I need to work on my camera video skills. Sorry to those who got seasick watching this.
A close up of a wet rodent of some sort in some shallow swampy water.
A blue heron flying over some golden marsh grass.
An eastern bluebird sitting on a curved iron post with their wings back about to take flight
From NASA's website description of the photo Shadows at the Edge of Lunar Day NASA ID: art002e009281 art002e009281 (April 6, 2026) – The Artemis II crew captures a portion of the Moon coming into view along the terminator – the boundary between lunar day and night – where low-angle sunlight casts long, dramatic shadows across the surface. This grazing light accentuates the Moon’s rugged topography, revealing craters, ridges, and basin structures in striking detail. Features along the terminator such as Jule Crater, Birkhoff Crater, Stebbins Crater, and surrounding highlands stand out. From this perspective, the interplay of light and shadow highlights the complexity of the lunar surface in ways not visible under full illumination. The image was captured about three hours into the crew’s lunar observation period, as they flew around the far side of the Moon on the sixth day of the mission. Date Created:2026-04-06 Center:JSC Keywords: Artemis II , Artemis , Moon , Orion , Orion Spacecraft
A view from above of Heidlberg, you can see the river on the right with the old bridge crossing it, and the old town filled with old buildingson the left.
A greater yellow legs bird walking away from the camera in some shallow water. It is looking over its right shoulder back at the camera
A photo in portrait of a tree with neon green new baby leaves and an osprey sitting in a lower branch looking towards the camera.
A hill of dried meadow grass which looks like flowing blond hair in the wind. On the top right of the hill is a bunch of evergreen trees and to the left is an aqua colored sculpture, two halves of the head of a rocking horse... But the two different halves are from different horses so they don't line up. In a few months time, they will both be filled in with colorful flowers but right now it's just the skeleton on the sculpture waiting for warmer weather.
A Sapporo sidewalk bricks with a framed black and white painted tile of I think a wolf.
A baby chicken maybe, painted on the side of a wall. The left half is more realistic and uses browns and blacks mostly on a normal dirty white colored wall... but the right side is crazy colors on a pink wall
A man walking a cliff trail in Ireland. The trail is mostly rock lined by green green grass. Water spans to the horizon where a small island can be seen.
A fallow deer in Phoenix park sitting in green grass looking to the right with some large antlers.
A sign explaining that because the US Treasury is no longer minting pennies, if you pay in cash they will have to round to give you change... And then they go on to explain how rounding works.
A large dead tree trunk sits out of the water in front of some tall dead grass. Two eagles were in the tree. One sits on one of the top branches with their right wing raised and the other just took off from a lower branch with both of their wings beating down.
Tundra Swans and Canadian geese in and on the frozen bay. A tree without its leaves sits on the right hand side showing a little peninsula out into the bay with lots of tall dead grass.
A goldfinch sits on a dead branch in the right hand side, looking at the lice covered dead pinkish flowers frozen on the left.
An osprey on a platform sitting and in the background you can see a second osprey sitting in the water
A blue bird looking left about to take off with their wings back standing on a curved iron hook
A chickadee is perched on a cattail plant that's lost of its fuzz.
A chickadee sits looking over their shoulder at the camera on a thin branch. On the left the dead stem that the thin branch connects to stands tall.
A bluebird facing to the right sitting on a rod iron wire. Their wings are raised and head starting to dip as they start to take flight.
A yellow throated sparrow sits looking to the left on a rail. On the right is a pine tree with its needles all frozen and covered in frozen rain/sleet.
A walking street in Lisboa Portugal at Christmas time. The sides of the street are lines with buildings and at the end in the middle is a large arch. In the middle of the arch you can see the statue that in the in plaza beyond. In the sky are Christmas decorations that are Christmas presents being parachuted into the street.
Looking out into water, land just mostly across about 1/4 way up then completely across the photo a bit further up with another bit jutting out a close to half way up and then full across again where then the sky is just above. It is a cloudy day but that kind of grey clouds that just smear across the sky. On the bottom 1/3rd bit of stretch of land you can see pelicans all sitting there, some flapping wings, but most just sitting with their wings folded.
An electric box in a neighborhood. It sits in front of a wire fence and has been painted on one side with a picture of Ruth Bader Ginsburg wearing her judicial robes and a crown. Above the portrait it says " anything worth having is worth fighting for." On the shorter side it has a quote stating " Fight for the things you care about. But do it in a way that will lead others to join you" or I think that's the quote as it's a bit hard to read. It also states that this is part of the Somerville art project.
A zoomed in photo of what looks like a dead tree with lots of curved branches, and an eagle sitting on a short one just staring off into the distance.
Graffiti on a wall, on the left is a turntable with a blue bird standing on top of it. On the right is a white background with pink hearts and blue and yellow polka dots with writing that says you've got to love Melbourne.
The top part of a dead tree looks almost black against a flat white sky. In the tree an eagle sits with their head bowed down.
A leopard seal is laying on the beach with their mouth open. They are lying far up on the beach, almost on the forest behind it. To the right you can see people far off in the distance watching the seal.
Looking out of the forest into a small bay. The other side can be seen on the right with a few outcroppings of rocks in the ocean.
A bird is sticking his whole beak into a flower that to me looks like a mini bird of paradise. Likely eating something in there, but I think it looks like he's really smelling the flower, like a wine sommelier smelling a glass of wine before sampling it.
In a rainforest in New Zealand you see a maybe 15 foot fern on the left with a trail leading deeper into the dark green forest.
A darker image with a large meringue that is topped in the middle with passion fruit curd and an outer ring of lemon fruit curd.