Steve
Sign in to savethumb|A STEVE over Little Bow Resort, [[Alberta, in August 2015]] thumb|A STEVE over Crossfield, Alberta, in March 2018 (around 12:30 a.m.)
Article
17 sectionsContents
- Discovery and naming
- Occurrence and cause
- Location and timing
- Research into cause
- Association with picket-fence aurora
- Research
- 2017
- 2018
- 2019
- 2020
- 2021
- 2022
- 2023
- 2024
- See also
- References
- External links
thumb|A STEVE over Little Bow Resort, [[Alberta, in August 2015]] thumb|A STEVE over Crossfield, Alberta, in March 2018 (around 12:30 a.m.)
STEVE is an atmospheric optical phenomenon that appears as a purple and green light ribbon in the night sky, named in late 2016 by aurora watchers from Alberta, Canada. The backronym later adopted for the phenomenon is the Strong Thermal Emission Velocity Enhancement. According to analysis of satellite data from the European Space Agency's Swarm mission, the phenomenon is caused by a wide ribbon of hot plasma at an altitude of , with a temperature of and flowing at a speed of (compared to outside the ribbon). The phenomenon is not rare, but had not been investigated and described scientifically prior to that time.