Package: plasmapy
PlasmaPyPlasmaPyis an open source, community-developedPythonpackage for
plasma research and education. PlasmaPy intends to be for plasma
science whatAstropyis for astronomy — a collection of
functionality commonly needed by plasma scientists and researchers
globally, running within and leveraging the open source scientific
Python ecosystem. The goals of PlasmaPy are more thoroughly described
inthis video. Current functionality is described inPlasmaPy's
online documentation. If you would like an idea of what PlasmaPy can
do, check out ourexample galleryof Jupyter notebooks. Many of our
recent presentations are available from thePlasmaPy Community on
Zenodo.Pleasesubmit a feature requestin ourGitHub repositoryif you
have an idea for new functionality. PlasmaPy is community-driven, and
feature requests really help guide the direction of software
development. Please alsosubmit a bug reportif you notice any
problems. We really appreciate it!If you are interested in contributing, please check out ourcontributor guideandcode of conduct. There are also a number ofgood first issuesin our GitHub repository. New contributors are
very welcome!InstallationPlasmaPy requires Python 3.9 or newer. If you do not have Python
installed already, here are the instructions todownload and install
Python.To install PlasmaPy on macOS or Linux, open a terminal and run:python-mpipinstallplasmapyOn some systems, it might be necessary to specify the Python version
number, for example by usingpython3orpython3.11instead ofpython.To install PlasmaPy on Windows, open a terminal and runpy-3.11-mpipinstallplasmapyThe3.11may be replaced by any version of Python that is supported by
PlasmaPy.If you haveinstalled Conda, then you can also install PlasmaPy into
an activated Conda environment by running:condainstall-cconda-forgeplasmapyPlasmaPy can also be installed usingAnaconda Navigatorso long asconda-forgeis added as a channel.Check out our instructions oninstalling PlasmaPyfor more details.Please check out our documentation for more information onhow to
install PlasmaPy. To contribute to the package or use the most recent
version, check out our instructions oninstalling PlasmaPy from
source.EventsPlasmaPy has severalmeetingsthat are on ourcalendar. Events are
usually held on PlasmaPy'sZoomroom.Last-minute changes are usually announced on theMatrix/Gitterchat room. The most up-to-date information about these meetings is on
themeetingspage of PlasmaPy's website.Office hoursOur weekly informaloffice hoursare an opportunity to chat with
active members of the PlasmaPy community about topics related to
Python and plasma science. If you'd like to learn more about PlasmaPy,
our office hours are one of the best places to start. As of February
2024, our office hours are on most Thursdays at 3 pm Eastern. Please
feel free to come by!Community meetingsPlasmaPy's weeklycommunity meetingsare a place to talk about code
development. If you have an idea for a new feature or would like to
make a code contribution, community meetings are a good place to go
to.  As of February 2024, our community meetings are on most Tuesdays
at 2 pm Eastern.Project meetingsPlasmaPy's weekly project meetings are a place to discuss education,
outreach, and project coordination. Topics might range from creating
educational notebooks to organizing community events. As of February
2024, project meetings are held on most Wednesdays at 3 pm Eastern.Working group meetingsPlasmaPy has started several working groups, including on diagnostics,
dispersion relations, and simulation. These working groups usually
meet fortnightly, and their meeting times can be found in PlasmaPy's
eventcalendar. If you would like to join a PlasmaPy working group
or even start a new one, please email us atteam@plasmapy.org!Plasma Hack WeekAhack weekis a mix of a hackathon and a summer school. Hack weeks
provide an opportunity to learn from each other and code together.Plasma Hack Weekwas held virtually in the summers of 2021 and 2022,
and we hope to hold this again in the future. If you would like to
help organize a future Plasma Hack Week, please emailteam@plasmapy.org.CommunityMatrix chatIf you have any questions, the quickest way to get a response is to
ask on ourMatrix/Gitterchannel. Both of these are the same chat
channel; Gitter uses a bridge to link the two.GitHub discussionsWe're trying outGitHub discussionsas a place to suggest ideas,
bring up discussion topics, and ask questions.Mailing listYou can subscribe to PlasmaPy's low-volumemailing listto receive
PlasmaPy newsletters and other announcements.Suggestion boxWe have asuggestion boxif you would like to (optionally
anonymously) suggest a feature/topic for consideration. These
suggestions might be changed into GitHub issues for further
discussion.Contact informationPlease feel free to reach out to us atteam@plasmapy.orgor stop by
ouroffice hourswith any ideas, questions, and/or puns about
computational magnetohydrodynamics.LicensePlasmaPy is permissively licensed under a3-clause BSD licensewith
addedprotections against software patents.Citing PlasmaPyAnemerging best practice for software citationis to cite thespecific versionof each software package used in a research project
(instead of only citing a journal article, website, or GitHub
repository). The citation should include a persistent identifier that
uniquely identifies which version of the software was used. We
therefore ask that you cite the specific version of PlasmaPy used in
your research project. Releases of PlasmaPy are available from thePlasmaPy community on Zenodo, along with many other PlasmaPy
resources. Please check our documentation for more detailedcitation
instructions.AcknowledgmentsEarly development on PlasmaPy was supported in part by the U.S.Department of Energy, theSmithsonian Institution,NASA, andGoogle Summer of Code. Ongoing PlasmaPy development is being
supported through acollaborative awardfrom theCyberinfrastructure for Sustained Scientific Innovationprogram of
the U.S.National Science Foundation.