Canadian scientists discovered a new type of northern lights

Amateur scientists in Canada have helped researchers discover a new type of northern lights.

The glowing ribbon of purple — and sometimes green — that runs east-west in the night sky has been observed and photographed by aurora borealis chasers for years.

“My involvement is being the goofball who named it Steve,” said Chris Ratzlaff, a Calgary photographer who’s a co-author of a research paper published Wednesday in the journal Science Advances.

The luminous light, distinct from traditional aurora, was previously undocumented in scientific literature and little was known about how it formed.

What has been learned by scientists at NASA and various universities is that the phenomenon is associated with a subauroral ion drift — a powerful current created by charged particles in the Earth’s upper atmosphere. The arc is an optical manifestation of that ion drift.

The research started four or five years ago with the Alberta Aurora Chasers, a Facebook group Ratzlaff helps manage that has grown to about 16,000 members.