What else can citizen science and 'amateur' observations reveal about STEVE?

The new STEVE (Strong Thermal Emission Velocity Enhancement) phenomena was revealed with the help of citizen science (MacDonald et al., 2018). Much remains to be explored with this phenomena. This presentation will demonstrate additional ways in which publicly sourced data can contribute focusing on three areas. The first is the frequency of observing STEVE. These observations appear to be captured by enthusiasts on the ground with DSLR cameras significantly more frequently than examples that have been found in the much longer-running THEMIS ASI database. While not revealing the absolute rate of the phenomena such images can help constrain the frequency and seasonal dependence, and also explore the relative resolution and sensitivity of different camera arrays needed to optimize observing for this feature. Secondly, simultaneous observations can be georeferenced to learn more about the altitude of the phenomena, both for the primarily purplish emission, and the transient green 'picket fence' features. Third, once the basic altitudes are better known, the scale sizes and orientation of the features can be characterized, from particular timelapse sequences captured by expert aurora chasing photographers. This is necessary to understand the geometry of the associated subauroral ion drift, and the particular complex 3d geometries of instabilities driven in the subauroral latitudes (where the field is not predominantly vertical or horizontal). Lastly, we aim to identify what instabilities or turbulent mechanisms may be at work by characterizing such parameters as the meso and micro scale sizes, decay times, and coherent wave patterns. Whether such features are driven or set up in the magnetosphere, plasmapause, or locally in the ionosphere is the ultimate question.