Steve is so strange that he still does not have an official scientific description, so his name is temporary. We've learned more about Steve from aurora enthusiasts and atmospheric scientists, but many questions remain.
The delightful phenomenon was first documented by the Alberta Aurora Hunters group on Facebook. Since then, Steve has been reported more than 50 times. This ribbon of purple and green lights is unlike any other aurora, and we still don't know why it forms. The Aurora Hunters of Alberta decided to name the phenomenon Steve after the children's movie "The Woodsmen", in which one of the characters calls Steve any object that he does not know.
The work of enthusiasts attracted the attention of scientists from NASA, ESA and the University of Calgary (Canada), who are actively trying to figure out what this unstable object really is.
Steve is an arch 25-30 km wide, which stretches for hundreds, thousands of kilometers from east to west. The phenomenon may remain in the sky for an hour or longer, and is seasonal, disappearing from October to February. Steve is usually hued with purple hues and is often accompanied by green short-lived palisade formations. The phenomenon occurs in the Northern Hemisphere along the same latitudes as Calgary in Alberta.
Recently, one of the Swarm satellites flew right through Steve. At an altitude of 300 km, the sensors recorded a temperature increase of 3 thousand degrees Celsius, and the data showed a 25-kilometer strip of gas floating westward at a speed of 6-10 km / s.