Rare ‘Steve’ phenomenon lights up UK skies in spectacular scenery

Last Monday (7), a rare natural phenomenon took sky watchers in the United Kingdom by surprise. Known as STEVE, short for enhanced thermal velocity emission, this celestial phenomenon stood out among the spectacle of auroras, although it was scientifically distinct from them.

The British Weather Service has been driven by recent strong solar activity, one of the biggest solar flares in the past seven years.

Unlike auroras, which usually form a luminous curtain or horizontally stretched oval shape, Steve appears as a bright ribbon in the sky, varying in duration from 20 minutes to an hour.

According to scientists, this phenomenon is caused by the rapid flow of extremely hot particles known as sub-auroral ion drift (SAID). However, this is still not well understood by the scientific community.

Because of his unpredictability, Steve is rarely recorded from the ground, making this event a special occasion for those who manage to find him. According to the BBC, the event was last seen in the United Kingdom in November 2023.

Although recorded in photographs for decades, the name “Steve” was only officially adopted in 2016 during a NASA-supported citizen science project. The curious name comes from a scene in the movie “The Forestless” in which a group of animals decide on an unknown “Steve” to overcome their fear. Later, the name was changed to a scientific abbreviation.

Apart from the rare Steve, auroras were seen in many parts of the UK, from the Western Isles to southern England, such as Buckinghamshire and Kent.