Steve in the Sky With Emissions

There’s an atmospheric phenomenon that resembles the Northern Lights, and it’s called STEVE. That’s because citizen scientists used that name among themselves when discussing these glowing ribbons of color in the sky. They settled on that name because of a moment in the animated film Over the Hedge where the characters confront something intimidating and decide to refer to it as Steve to make it less frightening. Professional scientists liked the idea, and even created a backronym for it: Strong Thermal Emission Velocity Enhancement. This is part of a complete episode.