The frame was taken by photographer Alan Dyer in Alberta through a fisheye lens (fisheye). According to eyewitnesses, stripes of green and purple were visible for 40 minutes. Phenomenon STEVE was discovered in 2017 by Canadian amateur astronomers. At first, these bands were mistaken for the proton aurora, but later scientists said that the proton arcs should be invisible to the human eye. In the end, with the help of the Swarm satellite, specialists managed to analyze the phenomenon, which showed that people observed a band of hot gas with a temperature of up to 3000 degrees Celsius at an altitude of about 300 km.
According to experts, this heat is caused by the collision of charged particles in the atmosphere during geomagnetic storms. However, scientists still do not have an exhaustive explanation, as well as the ability to predict the appearance of such bands. To unravel, a lot of additional observations and research are required.