NASA Wants Help Photographing a New Type of Aurora

The Northern and Southern Lights, on the other hand. appear as shimmering ribbons of mostly green, blue, and red light. They occur horizontally in the upper atmosphere, last for hours, and have an oval shape.

 

The new aurora was first documented by members of a Facebook group called the Alberta Aurora Chasers in 2015. These citizen scientists located in western Canada posted pictures of the aurora and named it Steve.

 

Soon scientists from NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland began collaborating with them to compare the dates, times, and locations of their pictures with data collected from the European Space Agency’s Swarm satellites. These satellites measure variations in the earth’s magnetic field.

The scientists were able to confirm the auroras, and their findings were published on March 14 in Science Advances (http://advances.sciencemag.org/content/4/3/eaaq0030.full).

 

Steve now has the official scientific name Strong Thermal Emission Velocity Enhancement, or STEVE for short.

 

Skywatchers who see STEVE or other auroras can report it on http://www.aurorasaurus.org/ and on the corresponding mobile apps for iOS and Android. Citizen scientists can post pictures there as well. This project is funded by NASA and the National Science Foundation. Its free to the public and open to everyone.

 

STEVE has been documented in the United Kingdom, Alaska, the northern United States, and New Zealand in addition to Canada. It is also visible in places further south than the Northern Lights usually are, such as southern Canada. STEVE may be a seasonal phenomenon, however. It has not been documented between October through February.

 

​

Copyright © 2018 Funacular Space News. All rights reserved.