The UK experienced strange sky phenomena on Sunday night. The spectacle, known as “STEVE,” typically accompanies the aurora.
Northumberland residents were able to get a good look at the rare occurrence of STEVE in the sky at night. (Source: BBC/USA Today)
STEVE Similar to the Aurora Borealis
The lights, called “Strong Thermal Emission Velocity Enhancement (STEVE),” were recently discovered and are similar to aurora borealis and australis, according to the NOAA. According to SpaceWeather.com, “STEVE is new. Not an aurora, although it looks like one. The gentle purple glow comes from heated (5400 degrees F) gas rivers rushing through Earth’s magnetosphere at over 13,000 mph. Strong geomagnetic storms like the weekend fuel these rivers.”
According to Space.com, STEVEs generate a reddish or greenish vertical streak instead of an aurora’s horizontal ripples. Before smartphone photography and social media, STEVEs were rarely photographed, said University of Calgary astronomer Eric Donovan. “To our utter amazement we observed a striking phenomenon,” wrote SpaceWeather.com user Martin McKenna of Swatragh, Northern Ireland. McKenna stated that the brilliance of the purple beam astounded them. It swelled and flashed, with delicate structures apparent to the naked eye, like feathers. According to my friend Conor, it looked like a real-time funnel cloud or tornado.
READ ALSO: Comfortable Weather This Week for US
STEVES Have Been Appearing in the UK
Another photographer, Wil Cheung of Whitley Bay, England, captured the strange sight Sunday night and lasted more than an hour. “Strong auroras danced in the north while STEVE flowed through the sky to my south.” The word STEVE is a “backronym,” matching words to existing abbreviations. Steve was named by a mid-2010s Facebook community that named the mystery sky feature. According to the Australia Broadcasting Corporation, the children’s movie Over the Hedge’s protagonists use the name to refer to something they weren’t sure about. Scientifically, STEVE became “Strong Thermal Emission Velocity Enhancement.”
NOAA’s Space Weather Prediction Center revealed in October that solar factors that cause auroras will peak next year and be stronger than expected. The northern lights, or aurora borealis, have enthralled humanity for ages. Space electrons and protons smash with Earth’s magnetic field to generate it. The particles subsequently interact with atmospheric gas molecules to create the aurora’s red and green colors. The lights are visible in the far north and south. The southern lights are Aurora australis. Auroras are created by electrons and protons, but STEVEs, discovered in 2018, are caused by hot gas ribbons.
The Washington Post reports that “solar activity is expected to be on the rise over the next few years, researchers say, so there could be good opportunities for the public to spot STEVE.”
READ ALSO: Winter Weather Warnings in US as Snowstorm May Strike
