Post #3 You is kind. You is smart. You is important.

Fact: I am smart.

Yes, it may not be grammatically correct (though that could be said for some of my blog posts) but it is certainly a good message. For those of you who don't know, the title is from the book The Help. It is a good quote to recall when I am feeling down. Here I am, four years into my graduate school career, thinking how I got here. 

Fig. 1 Al had it right.

PTM: I got here because I am smart! 

I was eating lunch with a classmate and we both agreed that in physics graduate school you shouldn't waste time thinking you are not smart. I should not waste time thinking I am not smart, I got this far. I passed my comprehensive exams. I am smart! 

I have to work a bit harder because my plasma knowledge was non existent a year and a half ago; plus I am not as math savvy as some of my peers. I am working though.

PTM: I will get there. 

Fig. 2

In other news, in roughly three hours the MMS team will be able to look at the first FPI data for Phase 1B. I am excited about it because I am on the hunt for more events that are like the ones I have already been working on, but better and actually get them down off the spacecraft in burst mode. Below (Fig. 3) is an example of one of my events. 

Fact: I am only a year and four months into my research.

SubFact: I have only been doing active research since January.

So far I know that these cooler ion beams that you can see clearly on the left and right sides of the bottom plot are not often looked at. As of now they don't appear to be located near a reconnection site, or at least not near enough for the majority of plasma scientists to care. I care. I care because these ions are looking to have origins at the earth. A couple questions arise with this, 1) How did they end up out near the magnetopause if they are from the earth's upper atmosphere? 2) Once out at the magnetopause are they effecting their surroundings? There are more questions but these two are a good start.

Fig. 3 Fast (4.5 s) vs. Burst (150 ms) data from MMS

GT: It appears to be officially Fall in the DC metro area (Fig. 4). As a follow up to last post's GT, I am done with Week 4 of c25k and will be starting Week 5 tonight! 

Fig. 4 Temperature-wise anyway