New Publication on Auroral-like Phenomenon in AGU Advances

May 5, 2021

There has been a new publication on the structures of an auroral-like phenomenon, named STEVE, and discovered by the Aurorasaurus team along with collaboration from many aurora-chasers.

Dr. Elizabeth Macdonald, a NASA Goddard Space Flight Center scientist who works in collaboration with the New Mexico Consortium, along with colleagues, recently published her work, The Mysterious Green Streaks Below STEVE, in AGU Advances.

Strong thermal emission velocity enhancement (STEVE) is an aurora-like optical phenomenon of the subauroral ionosphere, and it shows up when there are extreme ion drift speeds. It consists of a mauve or white arc and a region of green emission adjacent to the arc, which often looks like little columns or a green “picket fence”.

This study examines high‐resolution imagery to look at the fine‐scale features within the green emission region, taking particular interest in the narrow “streaks” of emission forming underneath the picket fence elements.

The authors of this study state that these streaks are likely caused from direct excitation of ambient oxygen by superthermal electrons generated by ionospheric turbulence, which is induced by the extreme electric fields that create STEVE.

To learn much more about this new publication on auroral-like phenomenon STEVE and the methods and results of this study, see the entire article at:

Joshua Semeter, Michael Hunnekuhl, Elizabeth MacDonald, Michael Hirsch, Neil Zeller, Alexei Chernenkoff, Jun Wang. (2020).The Mysterious Green Streaks Below STEVE. AGU Review. Volume 1. Issue 4.

Article by Carrie Talus, NMC.