The glowing ribbon over the icy lake: another observation of the mysterious Steve

On February 24, Matt Quiring noticed a purple ribbon in the sky over Jasper Lake in Alberta. According to him, he had planned to observe the northern lights, but instead he saw Steve. The moon was shining brightly, so Steve looks blurry.

Steve is an atmospheric phenomenon that was discovered quite recently. The soft purple glow is caused by incandescent (up to 3000 degrees) ribbons of gas that flow through the magnetosphere of our planet at a speed of more than 6 km/s. Quiring took the photo just hours after the coronal mass ejection reached Earth's magnetic field. A coincidence? Probably not. As our planet passed through the wake of the ejection, hot streams and plasma waves penetrated the Earth's magnetosphere. The result was Steve.

The phenomenon was first described by the group " Aurora Hunters of Alberta "on Facebook. This ribbon of purple and green lights is different from other auroras. The observers decided to name the phenomenon Steve in honor of the children's film "Forest Bratva", in which one of the characters calls Steve any object unknown to him.