The Northern Lights & STEVE Arcs in France

The Northern Lights & STEVE Arcs in France

At the far left and right, arcs of light appear to be a phenomenon known as STEVE, short for Strong Thermal Emission Velocity Enhancement. Unlike auroras, the STEVE seems to form from a ribbon of hot gases.

Astrophotographer Julien Looten: ". . . It all started two days ago, when a huge X-class solar flare propelled a gigantic coronal mass ejection (CME) towards Earth. It hit our planet yesterday afternoon, generating polar auroras that have continued to light up the sky ever since. . ."

On Earth, auroras are mainly created by particles originally emitted by the Sun in the form of solar wind. When this stream of electrically charged particles gets close to our planet, it interacts with the magnetic field, which acts as a gigantic shield. While it protects Earth’s environment from solar wind particles, it can also trap a small fraction of them. Particles trapped within the magnetosphere—the region of space surrounding Earth in which charged particles are affected by its magnetic field—can be energized and then follow the magnetic field lines down to the magnetic poles. There, they interact with oxygen and nitrogen atoms in the upper layers of the atmosphere, creating the flickering, colorful lights visible in the polar regions here on Earth.

Earth auroras have different names depending on which pole they occur at. Aurora Borealis, or the northern lights, is the name given to auroras around the north pole and Aurora Australis, or the southern lights, is the name given for auroras around the south pole.

In the last photo of the series, at the far left and right, arcs of light appear to be a phenomenon known as STEVE, short for Strong Thermal Emission Velocity Enhancement. Unlike other auroras, the STEVE seems to form from a ribbon of hot gases.

Image Credit: Julien Looten

Release Date: Oct. 10, 2024

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