Unusual Occurrence of STEVE: An Aurora-Like Glow

Editors’ Highlights are summaries of recent papers by AGU’s journal editors.

Source: Geophysical Research Letters

Strong Thermal Emission Velocity Enhancement, also known as STEVE, is a fascinating nighttime optical phenomenon that appears usually near the aurora in the upper part of Earth’s atmosphere. STEVE has been seen after a space disturbance called a “substorm,” which causes strong flows in the ionosphere.

Gallardo-Lacourt et al. [2024], however, discovered an unusual STEVE event that happened without any substorm. On 27 March 2023, STEVE appeared under remarkably quiet solar wind conditions, but strong ionospheric flows were accompanied. This discovery challenges the current understanding of the STEVE formation mechanism. Understanding these unusual lights could offer new insights into how space environment interacts with the Earth’s atmosphere.

Citation: Gallardo-Lacourt, B., Nishimura, Y., Kepko, L., Spanswick, E. L., Gillies, D. M., Knudsen, D. J., et al. (2024). Unexpected STEVE observations at high latitude during quiet geomagnetic conditions. Geophysical Research Letters, 51, e2024GL110568. https://doi.org/10.1029/2024GL110568

—Yuichi Otsuka, Editor, Geophysical Research Letters

Text © 2024. The authors. CC BY-NC-ND 3.0
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