STEVE

See also: Steve and steve

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STEVE

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STEVEs (Northern Lights)

Alternative forms

steve
Steve

Etymology

(2016) Backformation from the nickname "Steve" given to this aurora-like light. Acronym of strong thermal emission velocity enhancement. The nickname "Steve" resulted from a meeting between citizen scientists and researchers from the University of Calgary at a bar, to discuss the purple light. 'Steve' is the namesake of a cartoon character from the 2006 animated film "Over the Hedge", where cartoon animals try to peek over a suburban hedge. The backronym resulted from researchers creating a meaning to the nickname "Steve", keeping the original nickname for the formal name.^[1]^[2]^[3]^[4]^[5]^[6]

Noun

STEVE (uncountable)

An aurora-like light found in southern Canada (consistently lower latitude, unlike the aurora borealis which is generally high latitude), composed of a glowing purple ribbon of light, with green spikes coming off obliquely parallel to each other, moving at about 6.5 km/s East to West. Presumably occurs in the southern hemisphere as well.
- 2018, "On the Origin of STEVE: Particle Precipitation or Ionospheric Skyglow?", Geophysical Research Letters, B. Gallardo‐Lacourt; J. Liang; Y. Nishimura; E. Donovan;, DOI: 10.1029/2018GL078509
  Although STEVE has been documented by amateur night sky watchers for decades, it is an exciting new upper atmospheric phenomenon for the scientific community.
- 2018, "Historical observations of STEVE", arXiv, Mark Bailey; Conor Byrne; Rok Nezic; David Asher; James Finnegan;, BIBCODE: 2018arXiv180801872B
  Respecting its nickname, they have dubbed the phenomenon STEVE, an acronym for Strong Thermal Emission Velocity Enhancement.
- 2018, "New science in plain sight: Citizen scientists lead to the discovery of optical structure in the upper atmosphere", Science Advances, Elizabeth A. MacDonald et al.;, DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.aaq0030
  First, in the unfiltered white-light STEVE is a narrow purple band with the strongest emissions saturating to white

Hypernyms

Northern Lights

Coordinate terms

References

^ New York Times, "That Ghostly, Glowing Light Above Canada? It’s Just Steve", Jacey Fortin, 25 April 2017
^ New York Times, "Steve, a Famous Northern Light, Stays Mysterious (and Keeps His Name)", Jacey Fortin, 15 March 2018
^ NASA, "The Aurora Named STEVE", Yvette Smith, 15 March 2018
^ Popular Mechanics, "Sky Phenomenon 'Steve' Is Finally Explained", Sophie Weiner, 16 March 2018
^ The Guardian, "‘Steve’: the mystery purple aurora that rivals the northern lights", Emine Saner, 19 March 2018
^ The Telegraph, "What is Steve? Mysterious aurora seen in Scotland", Helena Horton, 20 March 2018

Anagrams

evets

[1] New York Times, "That Ghostly, Glowing Light Above Canada? It’s Just Steve", Jacey Fortin, 25 April 2017

[2] New York Times, "Steve, a Famous Northern Light, Stays Mysterious (and Keeps His Name)", Jacey Fortin, 15 March 2018

[3] NASA, "The Aurora Named STEVE", Yvette Smith, 15 March 2018

[4] Popular Mechanics, "Sky Phenomenon 'Steve' Is Finally Explained", Sophie Weiner, 16 March 2018

[5] The Guardian, "‘Steve’: the mystery purple aurora that rivals the northern lights", Emine Saner, 19 March 2018

[6] The Telegraph, "What is Steve? Mysterious aurora seen in Scotland", Helena Horton, 20 March 2018

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