Steve, Strange ribbons of purple and green haze An aurora borealis phenomenon discovered by citizen scientists in 2016 just got even stranger: While digging through archival data, a team of scientists discovered that the aurora-like phenomenon has a secret twin that moves in the opposite direction.
A photograph of Steve’s missing brother hovering above the Norwegian Arctic has been discovered in the archives of an all-sky digital camera at Norway’s Ramfjordmoen research station, according to new research. study Published in Earth, planets, space.
Strong heat radiation rate increaseAlso known as Steve, this aurora was first spotted in a photo on the Aurora Chasers Facebook group, appearing as an unusual purple streak in the night sky – named after the children’s movie Steve. Over the HedgeIn it, a character randomly comes up with the name STEVE to describe an unfamiliar object, whose full name is later combined to fit the acronym.
Although they sometimes appear at around the same time as the Northern Lights, their unique colors don’t match the green, blue, and red hues typically seen in the Northern Lights, and while the Northern Lights tend to last for hours, STEVE only graces the sky for a short time.
Naturally, scientists were intrigued and began investigating this strange aurora-like phenomenon, and upon closer inspection, Steve classified it as a subauroral lion drift, a phenomenon in which extremely hot gas is moving at high speeds.
The aurora is formed when the solar wind blasts particles towards Earth and is guided by the Earth’s magnetic field to the North and South Poles, where they collide with atoms and molecules in the upper atmosphere, resulting in a shimmering green light that fills the night sky.
Steve is also caused by the same process, but the magnetic field lines that move through it are different, which is why it can appear at much lower latitudes. But Steve’s strangeness doesn’t end there: the aurora-like phenomenon appears at dusk, when flows of hot gas move westward. Scientists have long suspected that Steve might have an eastward-moving twin phenomenon that appears at dawn.
That’s when an international team of researchers dug through archive data and, with the help of citizen scientists, searched for images of the aurora captured by the all-sky digital camera at Ramsfjordmoen research station. As with the discovery of Steve itself, it was citizen scientist Gabriel Arne Hofstra who spotted an object resembling Steve in an image taken on December 28, 2021.
“It’s great to contribute to new science and help scientists discover this phenomenon,” Hofstra said. statement“To me, this proves that we, the public, can contribute to understanding the world we live in by collaborating with scientists.”
Steve’s twin aurora formed an arch spanning more than 600 miles (1,000 kilometers) in diameter and appeared just after midnight poleward of the green aurora, which can also be seen in the image.
Beyond the physical similarities, the European Space Agency (ESA) also used three Swarm satellites to collect data on the magnetic field during the period when the Steve twin images were taken. No satellite passed directly through the arc at the same time and place as observed in the all-sky images. However, two satellites measured conditions in the purple region before, during, and after the event. From the data, scientists were able to track an eastward flow of ions in the purple region.
As we continue to gaze into the night sky, phenomena like STEVE remind us that there is always more to discover beyond what meets the eye. With each new discovery, scientists and public observers alike get one step closer to unlocking the mysteries of this incredible planet.
more: 25 Enchanting Photos of the Northern Lights
