What is the rare ‘Steve’ phenomenon? Inside the stunning aurora-like display which lit up Britain’s skies

We have all heard of the northern lights. 

But illuminating the night skies above Northumberland on Sunday was the Aurora’s lesser known relation: STEVE.

Standing for a ‘Strong Thermal Emission Velocity Enhancement’, the spectacle is caused by a flowing ribbon of particles breaking into the earth’s atmosphere.

The ribbon is around 16 miles wide, 280 miles high with a temperature of 3,000C (5,430F).

Little is known about its formation and why it can sometimes appear during an aurora display.

A close-up view of the Steve above Dunstanburgh Castle in  Northumberland on Monday evening

STEVE appearing over Bamburgh Castle in Northumberland last year

The atmospheric optical phenomenon is caused by a flowing ribbon of hot plasma breaking through into the earth’s ionosphere (pictured over Bamburgh Castle last year)

While auroras happen in an oval shape, Steve appears as a long strip. It lasts for 20 minutes to an hour before disappearing.

The last sightings of Steve in the UK were back in November 2023.

Scientists have suggested it is not a normal aurora, but actually comprises of a fast-moving stream of extremely hot particles called a sub-auroral ion drift or SAID.

While there have been photographs of Steve for decades, it only got the name Steve in 2016, following a US citizen science project funded by NASA and the National Science Foundation.

The inspiration for the name of the spectacle is thought to be from a scene from the animated film Over The Hedge. 

In the film, a group of animals awake from hibernation to find, what to them, is a phenomenon — a big garden hedge.

The Northern Lights on display in the skies over Cullercoats Bay in North Tyneside on Monday evening

The Northern Lights on display over Cullercoats Bay in North Tyneside on Monday evening

One of the creatures says: ‘What is this thing?’, while another responds with ‘I’d be a lot less afraid of it if I just knew what it was called’.

A squirrel then recommends calling the phenomenon Steve because Steve is less scary. 

Scientists later developed the acronym  Strong Thermal Emission Velocity Enhancement. 

Meanwhile, the Northern Lights were spotted across the UK on Monday night and into early Tuesday morning. 

And more sightings are possible over the next few days, cloud permitting, as solar activity remains high.