SuperDARN Observations of STEVE USNC-URSI National Radio Science Meeting
- Resource Type
- Conference
- Authors
- Perry, Gareth W.; Gallardo-Lacourt, Bea; Archer, William E.; Shepherd, Simon S.; Reimer, Ashton S.; Gillies, D. Megan
- Source
- 2022 United States National Committee of URSI National Radio Science Meeting (USNC-URSI NRSM) United States National Committee of URSI National Radio Science Meeting (USNC-URSI NRSM),2022. :208-209 Jan, 2022
- Subject
- Aerospace
Bioengineering
Communication, Networking and Broadcast Technologies
Components, Circuits, Devices and Systems
Engineered Materials, Dielectrics and Plasmas
Fields, Waves and Electromagnetics
Geoscience
Photonics and Electrooptics
Signal Processing and Analysis
Space vehicles
Temperature distribution
Laser radar
Stimulated emission
Ultraviolet sources
Radar imaging
Optical imaging
- Language
In situ spacecraft observations of STEVE (Strong Thermal Emission Velocity Enhancement) have confirmed that the phenomena are an intense SAID (SubAuroral Ion Drift). These observations tell us that STEVE is typically an extremely narrow channel (of the order of 20 km) of zonal ion flows (of the order of 5 km/s) that is collocated with a minimum in the sub-auroral trough meridional plasma density profile and extremely enhanced electron temperatures (of the order of 7000 K). Statistics derived from all sky imager data of STEVE shows that it typically occurs approximately one hour after substorm onset and has a lifetime of the order of one hour. The mechanism that produces STEVE's famous mauve optical emission which has captivated the citizen science community and – more recently – the “traditional” science community remains elusive along with the evolution of the phenomena from start to finish. Super Dual Auroral Radar Network (SuperDARN) High Frequency (HF) radars have been used for several years to study SAID and may provide a way of studying the evolution of STEVE events, including when its optical signature is too dim to observe with an imager.