PlasmaPy

2026.2.0

Code Docs DOI SciX

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Concise Description

PlasmaPy is an open source, community-developed Python package for plasma research and education, providing core particle, formulary, dispersion, diagnostics, and simulation functionality.

Description

PlasmaPy is an open source, community-developed Python package for plasma research and education. It is intended to contain core functionality needed by plasma scientists across disciplines — analogous to what Astropy provides for astronomy. PlasmaPy provides object-oriented and functional interfaces for representing and accessing particle data (plasmapy.particles); a comprehensive plasmapy.formulary subpackage implementing many common plasma parameter formulas drawn from the NRL Plasma Formulary (frequencies, lengths, speeds, drifts, collisions, dielectric and dimensionless quantities, distribution functions, quantum and relativistic plasma physics); and the plasmapy.dispersion subpackage for analytical (Stix cold-plasma, MHD wave) and numerical (Hollweg, kinetic Alfvén) plasma dispersion relations and the plasma dispersion function. The plasmapy.diagnostics subpackage provides analysis routines for Thomson scattering, swept Langmuir probe characteristics, and synthetic charged particle (proton) radiography, while plasmapy.analysis provides utilities for fit functions, conditional averaging of time series, and 3D magnetic null point finding. The plasmapy.simulation subpackage offers a general particle tracker with Boris and relativistic Boris integrators, and plasmapy.plasma defines 1D and cylindrical MHD equilibria, generic plasma classes, and structured/unstructured Cartesian grids, including a reader for OpenPMD HDF5 files. PlasmaPy uses astropy.units extensively to enforce physical-unit correctness on all inputs and outputs.

Authors

PlasmaPy Community

Nicholas A. Murphy ( Center for Astrophysics Harvard & Smithsonian , Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory , Smithsonian Institution )

Erik Everson ( University of California, Los Angeles )

Dominik Stańczak ( University of Warsaw )

Peter Heuer ( University of Rochester )

Pawel M. Kozlowski ( Los Alamos National Laboratory , West Virginia University )

Elliot Johnson ( University of Delaware )

Ritiek Malhotra ( Chandigarh University )

David Schaffner ( Bryn Mawr College )

Steve Vincena ( University of California, Los Angeles )

Mel Abler

James Addison

Paula Valentina Alarcon ( North Carolina State University )

Benjamin Antognetti ( University of Wisconsin–Madison )

Ataf Fazledin Ahamed ( OpenRefactory Inc. )

Christoper Arran ( University of York )

Haman Bagherianlemraski ( University of Massachusetts Amherst )

Jasper P. Beckers ( ASML (United States) )

Manas Satish Bedmutha

Camilo Bedoya-Lopez

Justin Bergeron

Ludovico Bessi

Riley Britten

Shane Brown ( University of Delaware )

Khalil Bryant ( University of Michigan )

Sean Carroll

Carlos Cartagena-Sanchez ( Beloit College )

Sarthak Choudhary

Christian Clauss

Sean Chambers

Ankur Chattopadhyay

Apoorv Choubey

Sebastian Colom ( NASA Ames Research Center )

Chase Davies

Jacob Deal

Gregor Decristoforo ( UiT The Arctic University of Norway )

Diego Diaz

Fionnlagh Mackenzie Dover ( SP2RC, School of Mathematics and Statistics, University of Sheffield )

David Drozdov

Tiger Du ( Vanderbilt University )

Leah Einhorn

Tamar Ervin ( University of California, Berkeley )

Thomas Fan ( Quansight (United States) )

Samaiyah I. Farid ( Center for Astrophysics Harvard & Smithsonian , Yale University )

Emmanuel Ferdman

Michael Fischer

Bryan Foo ( Massachusetts Institute of Technology )

Heinz-Alexander Fütterer

Rajagopalan Gangadharan

Seth Gerow ( Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University )

Mahlet Getahun ( Marietta College )

Jessica Gonzalez ( California Institute of Technology )

Brian Goodall

Shauna Gordon-McKeon

Marco Gorelli

Graham Goudeau

Silvina Guidoni ( American University )

Julia Guimiot

Colby C. Haggerty ( University of Chicago , University of Hawaii at Manoa )

Raymon Skjørten Hansen

Mohammed Haque ( Columbia University )

Julien Hillairet ( Commissariat à l'Énergie Atomique et aux Énergies Alternatives )

Chris Hoang

Poh Zi How

Yi-Min Huang ( Princeton University )

Nabil Humphrey

Maria Isupova

Alexis Jeandet ( Laboratoire de Physique des Plasmas )

Evan Jones

Marcin Kastek ( Institute of Plasma Physics and Laser Microfusion )

James Kent

Dusan Klima

Alf Köhn-Seemann ( University of Stuttgart )

Siddharth Kulshrestha

Sundaran Kumar

Piotr Kuszaj

Samuel J. Langendorf ( Los Alamos National Laboratory )

Anna Lanteri

Terrance Takho Lee

Andrew J. Leonard ( Aperio Software Ltd. )

Nicolas Lequette ( Laboratoire de Physique des Plasmas )

Pey Lian Lim ( Space Telescope Science Institute )

Aditya Magarde

Joao Victor Martinelli

Muhammad Masood ( University of Edinburgh )

Isaias McHardy

Dhawal Modi

Kevin Montes ( Massachusetts Institute of Technology )

Stuart J. Mumford ( Aperio Software Ltd. , University of Sheffield )

Joshua Munn

Leo Murphy ( William & Mary )

Bao Nguyen ( Imperial College London )

Suzanne Nie

Carlos Ortiz ( University of Wisconsin–Madison )

Shivam Panda

Mahima Pannala

Tulasi Parashar ( University of Delaware , Victoria University of Wellington )

Neil Patel

Francisco Silva Pavon

Roberto Díaz Pérez

Preston Pitzer ( Virginia Tech )

Jakub Polak

Ramiz Qudsi ( Boston University )

Raajit Raj

Vishwas Rajashekar ( PES University )

Afzal Rao

Jeffrey Reep ( University of Hawaii at Manoa )

Steve Richardson ( United States Naval Research Laboratory )

Jayden Roberts

Shanshan Rodriguez ( Grinnell College )

Reynaldo Rojas Zelaya

Armando Salcido

Andrew Sandeman

Antonia Savcheva ( Center for Astrophysics Harvard & Smithsonian )

Cora Schneck

Chengcai Shen ( Center for Astrophysics Harvard & Smithsonian )

Andrew Sheng

Dawa Nurbu Sherpa

Luciano Silvestri ( Michigan State University )

Trestan F. Simon

Angad Singh

Ankit Singh

Brigitta Sipőcz ( DIRAC Institute, University of Washington , Infrared Processing and Analysis Center )

Cody Skinner ( Phoenix Security Labs )

Tomasz Adam Skrzypczak

Nikita Smirnov

Joseph Smith ( Marietta College )

Stuart Sobeske ( University of Michigan )

Matteo Spedicato

David Stansby ( Advanced Research Computing Centre, University College London, UK , Department of Mechanical Engineering, University College London , Imperial College London , Mullard Space Science Laboratory, University College London , University College London )

Tomás Stinson

Shelley Sugiharto ( Texas A&M University )

Michaela Švancarová

Antoine Tavant ( Centre Spatial de l'École Polytechnique , Laboratoire de Physique des Plasmas )

Veronica Tranquilino ( University of Michigan )

Thomas Ulrich

Mychal Valle ( University of California, Los Angeles )

Thomas Varnish ( Massachusetts Institute of Technology )

Tien Vo ( Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics )

Tingfeng Wu

Sixue Xu ( University of California, Los Angeles )

Chun Hei Yip

Carol Zhang

Clément Robert

Shawn Polson ( Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics )

Yaocheng Chen ( Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute , Universidade de São Paulo )

Anthony Vo

Frank Silva

Sean Clark

Vaibhav Mehta ( Cornell University )

John Bonner ( Haverford College )

Mohit Arvind Khakharia

Mike German

Functionality

Data Processing and Analysis Analysis Data Access and Retrieval Data Reduction Energy Spectra Magnetic Null Finding Plasma Moments Processing Time Series Analysis Data Visualization 2D Graphics 3D Graphics Line Plots Models and Simulations Empirical First Principles Forward-Fitting Instrument Response MHD Physics-Based Theory

Technical Details

Programming Languages Python 3.x

Operating Systems Linux Mac Windows

CPU Architecture Apple Silicon arm64 x86-64

Development Status Active

Publication Date Apr 29, 2018

Publisher Zenodo

Data & File Formats

Data Sources HTTP/HTTPS Directories Other

Input Formats HDF5 JSON

Output Formats HDF5 JSON

Science Context

Related Phenomena Solar Wind Coronal Mass Ejections

Related Regions Solar Environment Corona Chromosphere Photosphere Solar Wind Interplanetary Space Earth Magnetosphere

Keywords

astronomy astrophysics atomic physics fusion heliophysics high-energy-density physics Langmuir probes magnetic flux ropes magnetic reconnection magnetohydrodynamics open source open source software particles physics plasma plasma astrophysics plasma diagnostics plasma parameters plasma physics plasma science proton radiography pyhc package python science solar physics space physics space plasmas thomson scattering

PlasmaPy

Software

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