The European Space Agency's trio of Swarm satellites recently discovered a river of plasma high in the upper reaches of Earth's magnetic field, which rushes eastwards and lights up the polar sky with an ethereal purple glow - a twin to the atmospheric phenomenon known as Steve.
STEVE, an acronym for Strong Thermal Emission Velocity Enhancement, was coined for a strip of pale purple light seen in the sky, later revealed to be caused by extremely hot, electrically charged gas crossing Earth's magnetic field.
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