Filmmaker from Japan captures aurora-like event ‘Steve’ in Alaska

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Filmmaker Tetsuya Nakagaki got more of an eyeful than he expected while out shooting footage of an aurora in Tok, Alaska.

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The 58-year-old Sapporo resident captured footage of a mysterious luminous phenomenon dubbed “Steve” (Strong Thermal Emission Velocity Enhancement), a shining bluish-purple belt stretching across the night sky.

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At around 11:30 p.m. on Sept. 6, a linear light belt appeared from the horizon to the zenith.

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The emission of light continued for about 10 minutes, then faded and vanished.

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“As the vivid light appeared at the same time as the aurora, I was stunned by it,” Nakagaki said.

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Steve was first observed several years ago in the United States, according to Yosuke Kamide, a professor emeritus at Nagoya University specializing in space physics.

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It often appears in an aurora, and varies in color and duration.

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The mechanism of how it appears is not yet known.

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