STEVE

Etymology
(2016) Backformation from the nickname "" given to this aurora-like light. The nickname "Steve" resulted from a meeting between citizen scientists and researchers from the University of Calgary at a bar, to discuss the purple light. 'Steve' is the namesake of a cartoon character from the 2006 animated film "Over the Hedge", where cartoon animals try to peek over a suburban hedge. The backronym resulted from researchers creating a meaning to the nickname "Steve", keeping the original nickname for the formal name.

Noun

 * 1) An aurora-like light found in southern Canada (consistently lower latitude, unlike the aurora borealis which is generally high latitude), composed of a glowing purple ribbon of light, with green spikes coming off obliquely parallel to each other, moving at about 6.5 km/s East to West. Presumably occurs in the southern hemisphere as well.
 * 2) * 2018, "On the Origin of STEVE: Particle Precipitation or Ionospheric Skyglow?", Geophysical Research Letters, B. Gallardo‐Lacourt; J. Liang;  Y. Nishimura;  E. Donovan;, DOI: 10.1029/2018GL078509
 * Although STEVE has been documented by amateur night sky watchers for decades, it is an exciting new upper atmospheric phenomenon for the scientific community.
 * 1) * 2018, "Historical observations of STEVE", arXiv, Mark Bailey; Conor Byrne; Rok Nezic; David Asher; James Finnegan;, BIBCODE: 2018arXiv180801872B
 * Respecting its nickname, they have dubbed the phenomenon STEVE, an acronym for Strong Thermal Emission Velocity Enhancement.
 * 1) * 2018, "New science in plain sight: Citizen scientists lead to the discovery of optical structure in the upper atmosphere", Science Advances, Elizabeth A. MacDonald et al.;, DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.aaq0030
 * First, in the unfiltered white-light STEVE is a narrow purple band with the strongest emissions saturating to white