This may look like your regular run-of-the-mill aurora borealis, but it’s actually quite special. This is Steve.
Steve, short for strong thermal emission velocity enhancement, is a rare aurora-like phenomenon first discovered in 2016.
Pictured here over Bamburgh Lighthouse in Northumberland, the atmospheric optical phenomenon is caused by a flowing ribbon of hot plasma breaking through into the earth’s ionosphere, appearing in the sky as a purple, red and white arc.
This plasma is a blast of hot gas – ‘normal’ auroras are caused by particles such as electrons and protons pummelling the planet, usually fired from the Sun as solar flares or coronal mass ejections.
As the ‘space weather’ collides with the atmosphere at around one million miles an hour, it energises particles in the magnetosphere, sending them rushing up and down the planet’s magnetic field lines towards the poles.
Here they collide with oxygen and nitrogen in the upper atmosphere, exciting the atoms that then release visible light of different colours, including green, purple and pink.
But whatever is hitting the planet, particles or plasma, the effect is equally as stunning, creating the mesmerising Northern Lights – and Steve – seen over the UK on Sunday night.
The aurora borealis, which have been particularly common recently as the Sun reaches its solar maximum, can stretch from 50 miles above Earth to as high as 400 miles.
Green auroras are caused by excited oxygen particles around 60 miles high, but at altitudes of 100-200 miles, this turns to red. Nitrogen gives off blue light at lower levels but switches to purple hues when higher in the atmosphere.
The Northern Lights are usually easiest to spot in the UK in Scotland, the north of England, north Wales and Northern Ireland, but under certain conditions, such as when a large coronal mass ejection hits, they can be seen further south.
They are usually most active around the spring and autumn equinoxes in March and September.
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