Plasma physics on Notably News

Plasma physics

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We include updates on Aurora, St. Elmo's fire, Ball lightning, Lightning, Fire, Upper-atmospheric lightning, Fluorescent lamp, Ion thruster, Ablation, Ionosphere, Bremsstrahlung, Sandia National Laboratories, STEVE, Plasmoid, Corona discharge, Magnetosphere ... and more.

March 2025	Heliophysics Science Division The Electrojet Zeeman Imaging Explorer (EZIE) mission is expected to launch, with the aim of studying electric currents in Earth's atmosphere that connect the aurora to the Earth's magnetosphere. NASA’s EZIE Mission Set for 2025 Launch – EZIE blogs.nasa.gov NASA’s EZIE Mission Set for 2025 Launch \| Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory www.jhuapl.edu
2024	Nano-PSI Nano-PSI plasma device was decommissioned at the DIFFER research institute in Eindhoven, with its successor LiMeS-Wetting device taking its place for wetting studies of Tin on Tungsten.
October 11 2024	STEVE STEVE phenomena was reported and photographed during a geomagnetic storm event in South Australia, providing new observational data about the rare atmospheric light phenomenon. Atmospheric phenomenon Steve spotted over south-east SA following Aurora Australis - ABC News www.abc.net.au Strong Thermal Emission Velocity Enhancement: What is STEVE, explained \| Lucky photographers capture rare streak of light nicknamed 'Steve' during aurora australis www.9news.com.au
February 15 2024	Upper-atmospheric lightning Photographer JJ Rao captured a gigantic jet in high-resolution slow-motion video from Derby in the Kimberley Region of Western Australia.
2023	Vacuum Journal Citation Reports reported an impact factor of 3.8 for the Vacuum journal. wos-journal.info Impact Factor of Vacuum, impact factor 2023 \| Journal citation reports 2023, journal impact factor 2023 www.scipublications.org
2023	STEVE Scientific research published on STEVE (Strong Thermal Emission Velocity Enhancement), focusing on kinetic modeling of its emission spectrum and exploring unsolved problems related to the 'picket fence' phenomenon. agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com www.researchgate.net
2022	Lightning EUMETSAT planned to launch the Lightning Imager (MTG-I LI) on Meteosat Third Generation to complement NOAA's GLM, with coverage over Europe and Africa.
2022	STEVE Published research paper 'Rainbow of the Night: First Direct Observation of a SAR arc evolving into STEVE', providing a significant scientific breakthrough in understanding atmospheric phenomena.
2022	STEVE Published research paper 'Auroral structures: Revealing the importance of meso-scale M-I coupling', contributing to the understanding of magnetosphere-ionosphere interactions.
2022	International Union for Vacuum Science, Technique and Applications Begin of the 2022-2025 Triennium for the International Union for Vacuum Science, Technique and Applications (IUVSTA), with a comprehensive list of 35 national vacuum societies from around the world representing their countries' scientific and technical vacuum expertise.
December 5 2022	Burning plasma NIF achieved a scientific energy gain above one, demonstrating a breakthrough in fusion energy research by producing more energy from fusion reactions than was input into the experiment.
July 2022	Plasma globe At the Questacon museum in Australia, a spark from a plasma globe ignited alcohol-based hand sanitizer on a child's hands, causing serious burns.
2021	STEVE Multiple research publications documented scientific investigations of STEVE, including multi-wavelength imaging observations in Athabasca, Canada, and first simultaneous observations combining citizen scientist data, 630.0 nm all-sky images, and satellite data.
2021	International Union for Vacuum Science, Technique and Applications Peter Barna from Hungary is recognized as an honorary president of IUVSTA.
2021	Gridded ion thruster DART mission launches carrying a NEXT-C xenon ion thruster.
2021	Gridded ion thruster ThrustMe reports successful satellite orbit changes using their NPT30-I2 iodine ion thruster.
November 2021	European Solar Telescope The American Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope, which is considered the counterpart to the European Solar Telescope, finished its construction.
September 20 2021	Upper-atmospheric lightning Photographer Frankie Lucena recorded a video of a gigantic jet plasma event over a thunderstorm in Cabo Rojo, Puerto Rico at 10:41 pm local time.
August 8 2021	Burning plasma NIF achieved a fully ignited plasma, marking a significant milestone in fusion research.
July 2021	Variable Specific Impulse Magnetoplasma Rocket Ad Astra completed a record-breaking test, running the engine for 28 hours at 82.5 kW, followed by a second test from July 12-16 running 88 hours at 80 kW, with plans to conduct 100 kW power level tests in 2023.
2020	Lightning End of a decade demonstrating a significant increase in the ratio of Arctic summertime lightning strikes compared to total global lightning strikes, highlighting the region's increasing susceptibility to lightning activity.
2020	Plasma acceleration Under the HORIZON 2020 Framework Programme, 74 scientific institutes collaborated to develop the Conceptual Design Report for the EuPRAXIA project, exploring plasma acceleration technologies including laser-driven, electron beam-driven, and hybrid acceleration approaches.
2020	Astrophysics and Space Science Prof. Elias Brinks becomes the sole editor-in-chief of Astrophysics and Space Science.
2020	Sandia National Laboratories Sandia open-sourced Charon, a TCAD simulator, marking a significant milestone as the first major open-source TCAD simulator for large-scale simulations.
2020	STEVE Multiple research papers published about STEVE (Strong Thermal Emission Velocity Enhancement), exploring its characteristics, formation mechanisms, magnetospheric conditions, and associated auroral phenomena.
2020	Burning plasma The National Ignition Facility successfully achieved a burning plasma in a laboratory setting, marking a significant milestone in plasma physics research by demonstrating a plasma primarily heated by fusion reactions.
August 2020	Plasma acceleration Scientists achieved a milestone in laser-plasma accelerator development by demonstrating their longest stable operation of 30 hours.
June 18 2020	Lightning A single lightning flash in Uruguay and northern Argentina lasted for 17.1 seconds, setting a new world record for lightning duration.
April 29 2020	Lightning World Meteorological Organization recorded a record-breaking lightning bolt 768 km (477.2 mi) long in the southern United States, surpassing the previous record length by 60 km.
2019	Upper-atmospheric lightning The Institute of Astrophysics of Andalusia (IAA) Atmospheric Electricity group conducted the first spectroscopy study analyzing the dynamics and chemistry of ghosts, identifying key contributors to the greenish hue including atomic iron, nickel, molecular nitrogen, ionic molecular oxygen, and trace amounts of atomic oxygen, sodium, and ionic silicon.
2019	Upper-atmospheric lightning Storm chasers Hank Schyma and an unnamed colleague first exclusively noted the phenomenon of 'ghosts', which are faint, green glows appearing within the footprint of a red sprite and persisting after the red dissipates.
2019	Lightning During the 2019–20 Australian bushfire season, intense forest fires created their own weather systems, producing pyrocumulonimbus clouds capable of generating fire lightning, demonstrating the complex interactions between extreme heat and atmospheric conditions.
2019	Sandia National Laboratories Attaway supercomputer became operational at Sandia, continuing the laboratory's tradition of advanced computational systems.
2019	STEVE Multiple scientific research papers published investigating the STEVE atmospheric phenomenon, including studies on its optical spectrum, color characteristics, magnetospheric signatures, and ionospheric electrodynamics.
October 16 2019	Upper-atmospheric lightning Pilot Chris Holmes captured a high-resolution video of a gigantic jet from 35,000 feet above the Gulf of Mexico near the Yucatán Peninsula. The video showed a blue streamer reaching to the ionosphere, turning red at the top, followed by a white lightning leader.
August 2019	Variable Specific Impulse Magnetoplasma Rocket Ad Astra announced successful tests of a new radio-frequency Power Processing Unit (PPU) built by Aethera Technologies, declaring 120 kW power and >97% electrical-to-RF power efficiency.
March 4 2019	Lightning Previous lightning duration record was set in northern Argentina before the 2020 record.
2018	Khan Research Laboratories Election Commission of Pakistan awarded KRL the contract for final design and production of electronic voting machines, after competing with National Institute of Electronics and Indra Sistemas of Spain.
2018	Sandia National Laboratories Astra supercomputer, based on ARM processors, was introduced at Sandia National Laboratories.
2018	STEVE Multiple scientific research papers were published about STEVE (Strong Thermal Emission Velocity Enhancement), a unique atmospheric phenomenon, exploring its origins, optical structure, historical observations, and formation conditions through citizen science contributions.
October 31 2018	Lightning Previous lightning distance record was held by a bolt in southern Brazil before the 2020 record.
August 2018	STEVE Researchers determined that STEVE's skyglow is not associated with particle precipitation, indicating it could be generated in the ionosphere, revealing a novel understanding of the atmospheric phenomenon.
March 2018	STEVE Elizabeth A. MacDonald and co-authors published a study in Science Advances suggesting STEVE accompanies a subauroral ion drift (SAID), marking the first observed visual effect of its kind.
August 2017	Variable Specific Impulse Magnetoplasma Rocket Ad Astra completed Year 2 milestones for the VASIMR engine, with NASA approving proceeding to Year 3 after a 10-hour cumulative test of the VX-200SS engine at 100 kW.
July 24 2017	Upper-atmospheric lightning The Gemini Cloudcam at the Mauna Kea Observatory in Hawaii captured several gigantic jets and ionosphere-height gravity waves during a single thunderstorm.
March 28 2017	Upper-atmospheric lightning Photographer Jeff Miles captured four gigantic jets over Australia.
March 1 2017	STEVE Simultaneous observation of geomagnetic pulsations, proton aurora, SAR arc, and STEVE dynamics registered at the Maimaga subauroral station during a substorm.
2016	Lightning NOAA launched the Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite–R Series (GOES-R) with Geostationary Lightning Mapper (GLM) instruments, enabling real-time lightning activity mapping across the Western Hemisphere.
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This contents of the box above is based on material from the Wikipedia articles Lightning, Gridded ion thruster, Microplasma, Plasma acceleration, Vacuum (journal), Sandia National Laboratories, Heliophysics Science Division, Upper-atmospheric lightning, International Union for Vacuum Science, Technique and Applications, Burning plasma, Plasma globe, Nano-PSI, STEVE, Astrophysics and Space Science, Khan Research Laboratories, European Solar Telescope & Variable Specific Impulse Magnetoplasma Rocket, which are released under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.