Contains:  Extremely wide field
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Aurora, Milky Way, clouds and STEVE?, Ian Dixon

Aurora, Milky Way, clouds and STEVE?

Getting plate-solving status, please wait...
Aurora, Milky Way, clouds and STEVE?, Ian Dixon

Aurora, Milky Way, clouds and STEVE?

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This was taken on July 2, 2022.. the auroral bowl was beginning to boil in the north and I noted this ribbon or band in mid sky.   

This strange auroral band was imaged with a modified 60D Canon and a very wide Rokinon lens.  (13 seconds, f 2.8, ISO 1600).

The area that I was standing in is a pasture of very young regrowth coniferous trees, an area that was subjected to a fire about a decade ago.

STEVE usually appears as a ribbon of light at right angles to the main aurora.   I think what is in the centre of the frame is STEVE... perhaps a lesser version of what I saw here last year: 

https://astrob.in/hvrdeq/B/

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What is STEVE?

From wiki:

STEVE (Strong Thermal Emission Velocity Enhancement) is an atmospheric optical phenomenon that appears as a purple and green light ribbon in the sky, named in late 2016 by aurora watchers from Alberta, Canada. According to analysis of satellite data from the European Space Agency's Swarm mission, STEVE is caused by a 25 km (16 mi) wide ribbon of hot plasma at an altitude of 450 km (280 mi), with a temperature of 3,000 °C (3,270 K; 5,430 °F) and flowing at a speed of 6 km/s (3.7 mi/s) (compared to 10 m/s (33 ft/s) outside the ribbon). The phenomenon is not rare, but had not previously been investigated. In August 2018, researchers determined that the phenomenon's skyglow was not associated with particle precipitation (electrons or ions) and, as a result, could be generated in the ionosphere.

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This kind of aurora is not posted too often on astrobin, so I am putting it up. 

Thanks for looking, hope you enjoy it.

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