Ball lightning explained

Ball lightning is a rare and unexplained phenomenon described as luminescent, spherical objects that vary from pea-sized to several meters in diameter. Though usually associated with thunderstorms,[1] the observed phenomenon is reported to last considerably longer than the split-second flash of a lightning bolt, and is a phenomenon distinct from St. Elmo's fire.

Some 19th-century reports describe balls that eventually explode and leave behind an odor of sulfur. Descriptions of ball lightning appear in a variety of accounts over the centuries and have received attention from scientists.[2] An optical spectrum of what appears to have been a ball lightning event was published in January 2014 and included a video at high frame rate.[3] [4] Laboratory experiments have produced effects that are visually similar to reports of ball lightning, but how these relate to the supposed phenomenon remains unclear.[5] [6]

Scientists have proposed a number of hypotheses to explain reports of ball lightning over the centuries, but scientific data on ball lightning remain scarce. The presumption of its existence has depended on reported public sightings, which have produced inconsistent findings. Owing to the lack of reproducible data, the existence of ball lightning as a distinct physical phenomenon remains unproven.[7]

Characteristics

Descriptions of ball lightning vary widely. It has been described as moving up and down, sideways or in unpredictable trajectories, hovering and moving with or against the wind; attracted to,[8] unaffected by, or repelled from buildings, people, cars and other objects. Some accounts describe it as moving through solid masses of wood or metal without effect, while others describe it as destructive and melting or burning those substances. Its appearance has also been linked to power lines,[9] altitudes of 1000abbr=inNaNabbr=in and higher, and during thunderstorms and calm weather. Ball lightning has been described as transparent, translucent, multicolored, evenly lit, radiating flames, filaments or sparks, with shapes that vary between spheres, ovals, tear-drops, rods, or disks.[10]

Ball lightning is often erroneously identified as St. Elmo's fire. They are separate and distinct phenomena.[11]

The balls have been reported to disperse in many different ways, such as suddenly vanishing, gradually dissipating, being absorbed into an object, "popping," exploding loudly, or even exploding with force, which is sometimes reported as damaging. Accounts also vary on their alleged danger to humans, from lethal to harmless.

A review of the available literature published in 1972[12] identified the properties of a "typical" ball lightning, whilst cautioning against over-reliance on eye-witness accounts:

Historical accounts

Ball lightning is a possible source of legends that describe luminous balls, such as the mythological Anchimayen from Argentinean and Chilean Mapuche culture.

According to statistical investigations in 1960, ball lightning had been seen by 5% of the population of the Earth.[13] [14] Another study analyzed reports of 10,000 cases.[15]

Gervase of Canterbury

The chronicle of Gervase of Canterbury, an English monk, contains what is possibly the earliest known reference to ball lightning, dated 7 June 1195. He states, "A marvellous sign descended near London", consisting of a dense and dark cloud, emitting a white substance that grew into a spherical shape under the cloud, from which a fiery globe fell towards the river.[16]

Physicist Emeritus Professor Brian Tanner and historian Giles Gasper of Durham University identified the chronicle entry as probably describing ball lightning, and noted its similarity to other accounts:

Great Thunderstorm of Widecombe-in-the-Moor

One early account reports on the Great Thunderstorm at a church in Widecombe-in-the-Moor, Devon, in England, on 21 October 1638. Four people died and approximately 60 suffered injuries during a severe storm. Witnesses described an 8feet ball of fire striking and entering the church, nearly destroying it. Large stones from the church walls were hurled onto the ground and through large wooden beams. The ball of fire allegedly smashed the pews and many windows, and filled the church with a foul sulphurous odour and dark, thick smoke.

The ball of fire reportedly divided into two segments, one exiting through a window by smashing it open, the other disappearing somewhere inside the church. Because of the fire and sulphur smell, contemporaries explained the ball of fire as "the devil" or as the "flames of hell". Later, some blamed the entire incident on two people who had been playing cards in the pews during the sermon, thereby incurring God's wrath.[17]

The sloop Catherine and Mary

In December 1726, a number of British newspapers printed an extract of a letter from John Howell of the sloop Catherine and Mary:

HMS Montague

One particularly large example was reported "on the authority of Dr. Gregory" in 1749:

Admiral Chambers on board the Montague, 4 November 1749, was taking an observation just before noon...he observed a large ball of blue fire about 3miles distant from them. They immediately lowered their topsails, but it came up so fast upon them, that, before they could raise the main tack, they observed the ball rise almost perpendicularly, and not above 40or from the main chains when it went off with an explosion, as great as if a hundred cannons had been discharged at the same time, leaving behind it a strong sulphurous smell. By this explosion the main top-mast was shattered into pieces and the main mast went down to the keel.

Five men were knocked down and one of them very bruised. Just before the explosion, the ball seemed to be the size of a large mill-stone.[18]

Georg Richmann

A 1753 report recounts lethal ball lightning when professor Georg Richmann of Saint Petersburg, Russia, constructed a kite-flying apparatus similar to Benjamin Franklin's proposal a year earlier. Richmann was attending a meeting of the Academy of Sciences when he heard thunder and ran home with his engraver to capture the event for posterity. While the experiment was under way, ball lightning appeared, travelled down the string, struck Richmann's forehead and killed him. The ball had left a red spot on Richmann's forehead, his shoes were blown open, and his clothing was singed. His engraver was knocked unconscious. The door-frame of the room was split and the door was torn from its hinges.[19]

HMS Warren Hastings

An English journal reported that during an 1809 storm, three "balls of fire" appeared and "attacked" the British ship HMS Warren Hastings. The crew watched one ball descend, killing a man on deck and setting the main mast on fire. A crewman went out to retrieve the fallen body and was struck by a second ball, which knocked him back and left him with mild burns. A third man was killed by contact with the third ball. Crew members reported a persistent, sickening sulphur smell afterward.[20] [21]

Ebenezer Cobham Brewer

Ebenezer Cobham Brewer, in his 1864 US edition of A Guide to the Scientific Knowledge of Things Familiar, discusses "globular lightning". He describes it as slow-moving balls of fire or explosive gas that sometimes fall to the earth or run along the ground during a thunderstorm. He said that the balls sometimes split into smaller balls and may explode "like a cannon".[22]

Wilfrid de Fonvielle

In his book Thunder and Lightning,[23] translated into English in 1875, French science-writer Wilfrid de Fonvielle wrote that there had been about 150 reports of globular lightning:

Globular lightning seems to be particularly attracted to metals; thus it will seek the railings of balconies, or else water or gas pipes etc., It has no peculiar tint of its own but will appear of any colour as the case may be ... at Coethen in the Duchy of Anhalt it appeared green. M. Colon, Vice-President of the Geological Society of Paris, saw a ball of lightning descend slowly from the sky along the bark of a poplar tree; as soon as it touched the earth it bounced up again, and disappeared without exploding. On 10th of September 1845 a ball of lightning entered the kitchen of a house in the village of Salagnac in the valley of Correze. This ball rolled across without doing any harm to two women and a young man who were here; but on getting into an adjoining stable it exploded and killed a pig which happened to be shut up there, and which, knowing nothing about the wonders of thunder and lightning, dared to smell it in the most rude and unbecoming manner.

The motion of such balls is far from being very rapid – they have even been observed occasionally to pause in their course, but they are not the less destructive for all that. A ball of lightning which entered the church of Stralsund, on exploding, projected a number of balls which exploded in their turn like shells.[24]

Tsar Nicholas II

Nicholas II, the final tsar of the Russian Empire, reported witnessing a fiery ball as a child attending church in the company of his grandfather Alexander II.

Once my parents were away, and I was at the all-night vigil with my grandfather in the small church in Alexandria. During the service there was a powerful thunderstorm, streaks of lightning flashed one after the other, and it seemed as if the peals of thunder would shake even the church and the whole world to its foundations. Suddenly it became quite dark, a blast of wind from the open door blew out the flame of the candles which were lit in front of the iconostasis, there was a long clap of thunder, louder than before, and I suddenly saw a fiery ball flying from the window straight towards the head of the Emperor. The ball (it was of lightning) whirled around the floor, then passed the chandelier and flew out through the door into the park. My heart froze, I glanced at my grandfather – his face was completely calm. He crossed himself just as calmly as he had when the fiery ball had flown near us, and I felt that it was unseemly and not courageous to be frightened as I was. I felt that one had only to look at what was happening and believe in the mercy of God, as he, my grandfather, did. After the ball had passed through the whole church, and suddenly gone out through the door, I again looked at my grandfather. A faint smile was on his face, and he nodded his head at me. My panic disappeared, and from that time I had no more fear of storms.[25]

Aleister Crowley

British occultist Aleister Crowley reported witnessing what he referred to as "globular electricity" during a thunderstorm on Lake Pasquaney[26] in New Hampshire, United States, in 1916. He was sheltered in a small cottage when he, in his own words,

...noticed, with what I can only describe as calm amazement, that a dazzling globe of electric fire, apparently between 6and in diameter, was stationary about 6spell=inNaNspell=in below and to the right of my right knee. As I looked at it, it exploded with a sharp report quite impossible to confuse with the continuous turmoil of the lightning, thunder and hail, or that of the lashed water and smashed wood which was creating a pandemonium outside the cottage. I felt a very slight shock in the middle of my right hand, which was closer to the globe than any other part of my body.[27]

R. C. Jennison

Jennison, of the Electronics Laboratory at the University of Kent, described his own observation of ball lightning in an article published in Nature in 1969:

I was seated near the front of the passenger cabin of an all-metal airliner (Eastern Airlines Flight EA 539) on a late night flight from New York to Washington. The aircraft encountered an electrical storm during which it was enveloped in a sudden bright and loud electrical discharge (0005 h EST, March 19, 1963). Some seconds after this a glowing sphere a little more than 20cm (10inches) in diameter emerged from the pilot's cabin and passed down the aisle of the aircraft approximately 50abbr=inNaNabbr=in from me, maintaining the same height and course for the whole distance over which it could be observed.[28]

Other accounts

A beautiful yet strange phenomenon was seen in this city on last Monday night. The wind was high and the air seemed to be full of electricity. In front of, above and around the new Hall of Engineering of the School of Mines, balls of fire played tag for half an hour, to the wonder and amazement of all who saw the display. In this building is situated the dynamos and electrical apparatus of perhaps the finest electrical plant of its size in the state. There was probably a visiting delegation from the clouds, to the captives of the dynamos on last Monday night, and they certainly had a fine visit and a roystering game of romp.[31]

Direct measurements of natural ball lightning

In January 2014, scientists from Northwest Normal University in Lanzhou, China, published the results of recordings made in July 2012 of the optical spectrum of what was thought to be natural ball lightning made by chance during the study of ordinary cloud–ground lightning on the Tibetan Plateau.[43] At a distance of 900m (3,000feet), a total of 1.64 seconds of digital video of the ball lightning and its spectrum was made, from the formation of the ball lightning after the ordinary lightning struck the ground, up to the optical decay of the phenomenon. Additional video was recorded by a high-speed (3000 frames/sec) camera, which captured only the last 0.78 seconds of the event, due to its limited recording capacity. Both cameras were equipped with slitless spectrographs. The researchers detected emission lines of neutral atomic silicon, calcium, iron, nitrogen, and oxygen—in contrast with mainly ionized nitrogen emission lines in the spectrum of the parent lightning. The ball lightning traveled horizontally across the video frame at an average speed equivalent of 8.6m/s. It had a diameter of 5m (16feet) and covered a distance of about 15m (49feet) within those 1.64 s.

Oscillations in the light intensity and in the oxygen and nitrogen emission at a frequency of 100 hertz, possibly caused by the electromagnetic field of the 50 Hz high-voltage power transmission line in the vicinity, were observed. From the spectrum, the temperature of the ball lightning was assessed as being lower than the temperature of the parent lightning (<15,000 to 30,000 K). The observed data are consistent with vaporization of soil as well as with ball lightning's sensitivity to electric fields.

Laboratory experiments

Scientists have long attempted to produce ball lightning in laboratory experiments. While some experiments have produced effects that are visually similar to reports of natural ball lightning, it has not yet been determined whether there is any relation.

Nikola Tesla reportedly could artificially produce 1.5inches balls and conducted some demonstrations of his ability.[44] Tesla was more interested in higher voltages and powers as well as remote transmission of power; the balls he made were just a curiosity.[45]

The International Committee on Ball Lightning (ICBL) held regular symposia on the subject. A related group uses the generic name "Unconventional Plasmas".[46] The last ICBL symposium was tentatively scheduled for July 2012 in San Marcos, Texas but was cancelled due to a lack of submitted abstracts.[47]

Wave-guided microwaves

Ohtsuki and Ofuruton[48] [49] described producing "plasma fireballs" by microwave interference within an air-filled cylindrical cavity fed by a rectangular waveguide using a 2.45 GHz, 5 kW (maximum power) microwave oscillator.

Water discharge experiments

Some scientific groups, including the Max Planck Institute, have reportedly produced a ball lightning-type effect by discharging a high-voltage capacitor in a tank of water.[50] [51]

Home microwave oven experiments

Many modern experiments involve using a microwave oven to produce small rising glowing balls, often referred to as plasma balls.Generally, the experiments are conducted by placing a lit or recently extinguished match or other small object in a microwave oven. The burnt portion of the object flares up into a large ball of fire, while "plasma balls" float near the oven chamber ceiling. Some experiments describe covering the match with an inverted glass jar, which contains both the flame and the balls so that they do not damage the chamber walls.[52] (A glass jar, however, eventually explodes rather than simply causing charred paint or melting metal, as happens to the inside of a microwave.) Experiments by Eli Jerby and Vladimir Dikhtyar in Israel revealed that microwave plasma balls are made up of nanoparticles with an average radius of 25abbr=inNaNabbr=in. The Israeli team demonstrated the phenomenon with copper, salts, water and carbon.[53]

Silicon experiments

Experiments in 2007 involved shocking silicon wafers with electricity, which vaporizes the silicon and induces oxidation in the vapors. The visual effect can be described as small glowing, sparkling orbs that roll around a surface. Two Brazilian scientists, Antonio Pavão and Gerson Paiva of the Federal University of Pernambuco[54] have reportedly consistently made small long-lasting balls using this method.[55] [56] These experiments stemmed from the theory that ball lightning is actually oxidized silicon vapors (see vaporized silicon hypothesis, below).

Proposed scientific explanations

There is at present no widely accepted explanation for ball lightning. Several hypotheses have been advanced since the phenomenon was brought into the scientific realm by the English physician and electrical researcher William Snow Harris in 1843,[57] and French Academy scientist François Arago in 1855.[58]

Vaporized silicon hypothesis

This hypothesis suggests that ball lightning consists of vaporized silicon burning through oxidation. Lightning striking Earth's soil could vaporize the silica contained within it, and somehow separate the oxygen from the silicon dioxide, turning it into pure silicon vapor. As it cools, the silicon could condense into a floating aerosol, bound by its charge, glowing due to the heat of silicon recombining with oxygen. An experimental investigation of this effect, published in 2007, reported producing "luminous balls with lifetime in the order of seconds" by evaporating pure silicon with an electric arc.[59] [60] Videos and spectrographs of this experiment have been made available.[61] [62] This hypothesis got significant supportive data in 2014, when the first ever recorded spectra of natural ball lightning were published. The theorized forms of silicon storage in soil include nanoparticles of Si, SiO, and SiC.[63] Matthew Francis has dubbed this the "dirt clod hypothesis", in which the spectrum of ball lightning shows that it shares chemistry with soil.[64]

Electrically charged solid-core model

In this model ball lightning is assumed to have a solid, positively charged core. According to this underlying assumption, the core is surrounded by a thin electron layer with a charge nearly equal in magnitude to that of the core. A vacuum exists between the core and the electron layer containing an intense electromagnetic (EM) field, which is reflected and guided by the electron layer. The microwave EM field applies a ponderomotive force (radiation pressure) to the electrons preventing them from falling into the core.[65] [66]

Microwave cavity hypothesis

Pyotr Kapitsa proposed that ball lightning is a glow discharge driven by microwave radiation that is guided to the ball along lines of ionized air from lightning clouds where it is produced. The ball serves as a resonant microwave cavity, automatically adjusting its radius to the wavelength of the microwave radiation so that resonance is maintained.[67] [68]

The Handel Maser-Soliton theory of ball lightning hypothesizes that the energy source generating the ball lightning is a large (several cubic kilometers) atmospheric maser. The ball lightning appears as a plasma caviton at the antinodal plane of the microwave radiation from the maser.[69]

In 2017, Researchers from Zhejiang University in Hangzhou, China, proposed that the bright glow of lightning balls is created when microwaves become trapped inside a plasma bubble. At the tip of a lightning stroke reaching the ground, a relativistic electron bunch can be produced when in contact with microwave radiation.[70] The latter ionizes the local air and the radiation pressure evacuates the resulting plasma, forming a spherical plasma bubble that stably traps the radiation. Microwaves trapped inside the ball continue to generate plasma for a moment to maintain the bright flashes described in observer accounts. The ball eventually fades as the radiation held within the bubble starts to decay and microwaves are discharged from the sphere. The lightning balls can dramatically explode as the structure destabilizes. The theory could explain many of the strange characteristics of ball lightning. For instance, microwaves are able to pass through glass, which helps to explain why balls could be formed indoors.

Soliton hypothesis

See main article: Soliton and St. Elmo's fire.

Julio Rubinstein,[71] David Finkelstein, and James R. Powell proposed that ball lightning is a detached St. Elmo's fire (1964–1970). St. Elmo's fire arises when a sharp conductor, such as a ship's mast, amplifies the atmospheric electric field to breakdown. For a globe the amplification factor is 3. A free ball of ionized air can amplify the ambient field this much by its own conductivity. When this maintains the ionization, the ball is then a soliton in the flow of atmospheric electricity.

Powell's kinetic theory calculation found that the ball size is set by the second Townsend coefficient (the mean free path of conduction electrons) near breakdown. Wandering glow discharges are found to occur within certain industrial microwave ovens and continue to glow for several seconds after power is shut off. Arcs drawn from high-power low-voltage microwave generators also are found to exhibit afterglow. Powell measured their spectra, and found that the after-glow comes mostly from metastable NO ions, which are long-lived at low temperatures. It occurred in air and in nitrous oxide, which possess such metastable ions, and not in atmospheres of argon, carbon dioxide, or helium, which do not.

The soliton model of a ball lightning was further developed.[72] [73] [74] It was suggested that a ball lightning is based on spherically symmetric nonlinear oscillations of charged particles in plasma – the analogue of a spatial Langmuir soliton.[75] These oscillations were described in both classical and quantum[76] approaches. It was found that the most intense plasma oscillations occur in the central regions of a ball lightning. It is suggested that bound states of radially oscillating charged particles with oppositely oriented spins – the analogue of Cooper pairs – can appear inside a ball lightning.[77] This phenomenon, in its turn, can lead to a superconducting phase in a ball lightning. The idea of the superconductivity in a ball lightning was considered earlier.[78] The possibility of the existence of a ball lightning with a composite core was also discussed in this model.[79]

Hydrodynamic vortex ring antisymmetry

One theory that may account for the wide spectrum of observational evidence is the idea of combustion inside the low-velocity region of spherical vortex breakdown of a natural vortex (e.g., the 'Hill's spherical vortex').[80]

Nanobattery hypothesis

Oleg Meshcheryakov suggests that ball lightning is made of composite nano or submicrometer particles—each particle constituting a battery. A surface discharge shorts these batteries, causing a current that forms the ball. His model is described as an aerosol model that explains all the observable properties and processes of ball lightning.[81] [82]

Buoyant plasma hypothesis

The declassified Project Condign report concludes that buoyant charged plasma formations similar to ball lightning are formed by novel physical, electrical, and magnetic phenomena, and that these charged plasmas are capable of being transported at enormous speeds under the influence and balance of electrical charges in the atmosphere. These plasmas appear to originate due to more than one set of weather and electrically charged conditions, the scientific rationale for which is incomplete or not fully understood. One suggestion is that meteoroids breaking up in the atmosphere and forming charged plasmas as opposed to burning completely or impacting as meteorites could explain some instances of the phenomena, in addition to other unknown atmospheric events.[83] However, according to Stenhoff, this explanation is considered insufficient to explain the ball lightning phenomenon, and would likely not withstand peer review.[84]

Transcranial magnetic stimulation

Cooray and Cooray (2008)[85] stated that the features of hallucinations experienced by patients having epileptic seizures in the occipital lobe are similar to the observed features of ball lightning. The study also showed that the rapidly changing magnetic field of a close lightning flash is strong enough to excite the neurons in the brain. This strengthens the possibility of lightning-induced seizure in the occipital lobe of a person close to a lightning strike, establishing the connection between epileptic hallucination mimicking ball lightning and thunderstorms.

More recent research with transcranial magnetic stimulation has been shown to give the same hallucination results in the laboratory (termed magnetophosphenes), and these conditions have been shown to occur in nature near lightning strikes.[86] [87] This hypothesis fails to explain observed physical damage caused by ball lightning or simultaneous observation by multiple witnesses. (At the very least, observations would differ substantially.)

Theoretical calculations from University of Innsbruck researchers suggest that the magnetic fields involved in certain types of lightning strikes could potentially induce visual hallucinations resembling ball lightning. Such fields, which are found within close distances to a point in which multiple lightning strikes have occurred over a few seconds, can directly cause the neurons in the visual cortex to fire, resulting in magnetophosphenes (magnetically induced visual hallucinations).[88]

Rydberg matter concept

Manykin et al. have suggested atmospheric Rydberg matter as an explanation of ball lightning phenomena.[89] Rydberg matter is a condensed form of highly excited atoms in many aspects similar to electron-hole droplets in semiconductors.[90] [91] However, in contrast to electron-hole droplets, Rydberg matter has an extended life-time—as long as hours. This condensed excited state of matter is supported by experiments, mainly of a group led by Holmlid.[92] It is similar to a liquid or solid state of matter with extremely low (gas-like) density. Lumps of atmospheric Rydberg matter can result from condensation of highly excited atoms that form by atmospheric electrical phenomena, mainly from linear lightning. Stimulated decay of Rydberg matter clouds can, however, take the form of an avalanche, and so appear as an explosion.

Vacuum hypothesis

Nikola Tesla (1899 December) theorized that the balls consist of highly rarefied (but hot) gas.[45]

Other hypotheses

Several other hypotheses have been proposed to explain ball lightning:

See also

Further reading

External links

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Ball lightning: weird, mysterious, perplexing, and deadly . https://web.archive.org/web/20210217145014/https://www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/article/ball-lightning . dead . 17 February 2021 . Nunez . Christina . 2019-03-06 . www.nationalgeographic.com . en . 2022-07-02.
  2. Web site: Does ball lightning really exist? . Trimarchi . Maria . 2008-07-07 . HowStuffWorks.com . en . 2019-06-25.
  3. Cen . Jianyong . Ping . Yuan . Simin . Xue . 17 January 2014 . Observation of the Optical and Spectral Characteristics of Ball Lightning . . 112 . 3 . 035001 . 10.1103/PhysRevLett.112.035001 . 2014PhRvL.112c5001C . 24484145.
  4. Natural ball lightning probed for the first time . Slezak . Michael . . 221 . 2953 . 17 . 16 January 2014 . 22 January 2014. 2014NewSc.221...17S . 10.1016/S0262-4079(14)60173-1 .
  5. Web site: The 'Skyrmion' May Have Solved the Mystery of Ball Lightning . Letzter . Rafi . 6 March 2018 . Live Science . 2019-01-20.
  6. Thermodynamic and kinetic properties of nonideal Rydberg matter . Soviet Journal of Experimental and Theoretical Physics Letters . 92 . 9 . 630 . Manykin . E. A. . Zelener . B. B. . Zelener . B. V. . 121748296 . 2010 . 10.1134/S0021364010210125 . 2010JETPL..92..630M.
  7. Web site: Anna Salleh . Ball lightning bamboozles physicist . 35.2772;149.1292 . Abc.net.au . 2008-03-20 . 21 January 2014.
  8. Web site: BL_Info_10 . Ernmphotography.com . 13 July 2009 . dead. https://web.archive.org/web/20081222205540/http://www.ernmphotography.com/Pages/Ball_Lightning/BL_Info_10.html . 22 December 2008 .
  9. Web site: Unusual Phenomea Reports: Ball Lightning . Amasci.com . 13 July 2009.
  10. Barry, James Dale: Ball Lightning and Bead Lightning: Extreme Forms of Atmospheric Electricity,, 1980, Plenum Press (p. 35)
  11. Barry, J.D. (1980a) Ball Lightning and Bead Lightning: Extreme Forms of Atmospheric Electricity. 8–9. New York and London: Plenum Press.
  12. Charman. Neil. 14 December 1972. The enigma of ball Lightning. New Scientist. 56. 824. 632–635 .
  13. Anon. Ask the experts. Scientific American. 4 April 2007.
  14. J. R.. McNally. Preliminary Report on Ball Lightning. Proceedings of the Second Annual Meeting of the Division of Plasma Physics of the American Physical Society. Gatlinburg. 2–5. 1960. Paper J-15. 1–25.
  15. A. I.. Grigoriev. Statistical Analysis of the Ball Lightning Properties. Science of Ball Lightning. Y. H. Ohtsuki. 1988. 88–134.
  16. News: Is this England's earliest report of ball lightning? . BBC Weather. 27 January 2022 .
  17. Book: The Two Widecombe Tracts, 1638[,] giving a Contemporary Account of the great Storm, reprinted with an Introduction]. 1905. James G Commin. Exeter. J. B[rooking] R[owe]. 29 June 2013.
  18. Day. Jeremiah. A view of the theories which have been proposed to explain the origin of meteoric stones. The General Repository and Review. January 1813. 3. 1. 156–157. 29 June 2013.
  19. Book: Clarke, Ronald W. . Ronald W. Clark . Benjamin Franklin, A Biography . 978-1-84212-272-3 . 1983 . Random House . 87 .
  20. News: Weather Eye: Charles Darwin, the meteorologist . The Times . London . 17 February 2009 . 2020-07-06 . Paul . Simons . subscription.
  21. Web site: Aliens? Great balls of fire . Matthews . Robert . 23 February 2009 . . 14 August 2009 . https://web.archive.org/web/20090801174415/http://www.thenational.ae/article/20090223/FRONTIERS/646186738/1036 . 1 August 2009 . dead .
  22. Book: Brewer, Ebenezer Cobham. A Guide to the Scientific Knowledge of Things Familiar. 1864. 13–14. 22 January 2014.
  23. Book: de Fonvielle, Wilfrid . Phipson . T. L. . Thunder and lightning (full text). 1875. 32–39. Chapter X Globular lightning. 978-1-142-61255-9 . https://books.google.com/books?id=hukDAAAAQAAJ.
  24. News: Globular lightning. Anon. 24 December 1867. The Leeds Mercury. Leeds, UK.
  25. Web site: Tsar-Martyr Nicholas II and His Family . Orthodox.net . 13 July 2009 . https://web.archive.org/web/20090617074756/http://www.orthodox.net/russiannm/nicholas-ii-tsar-martyr-and-his-family.html . 17 June 2009 . live.
  26. There is no present-day Lake Pasquaney in New Hampshire, United States. New Hampshire's Newfound Lake has a Camp Pasquaney. However, part of the lake is known as Pasquaney Bay.
  27. Book: Crowley, Aleister. The Confessions of Aleister Crowley: An Autobiography. 978-0-14-019189-9. Penguin. 1989. Chapter 83.
  28. Jennison . R. C. . 4271920 . 1969 . Ball Lightning. Nature . 224 . 895 . 1969Natur.224..895J . 10.1038/224895a0. 5222 . free .
  29. Ley . Willy . October 1960 . The Moon Worm . For Your Information . Galaxy Science Fiction . 56–71.
  30. Web site: Miracle saved panth . Sikhnet.com . 2009-12-21 . 21 January 2014.
  31. Golden Globe, 24 November 1894.
  32. Soubbotine . Mlle. N. de . (Météorologie) . Bulletin de la Société astronomique de France . 1902 . 16 . 117–118 . fr.
  33. Mark Stenhoff (1999) Ball Lightning: An Unsolved Problem in Atmospheric Physics. Kluwer Academic/Plenum Publishers, p70.
  34. 13 July 2009.
  35. Book: Wilder, Laura Ingalls. Laura Ingalls Wilder. On the Banks of Plum Creek. Harper Trophy. 1937. 978-0-06-440005-3.
  36. News: Getline. Meryl. Playing with (St. Elmo's) fire. USA Today. 17 October 2005.
  37. Web site: Ball lightning – and the charge sheath vortex . Peter-thomson.co.uk . 13 July 2009 . 8 April 2013 . https://web.archive.org/web/20130408052051/http://www.peter-thomson.co.uk/tornado/fusion/Ball_lightning_and_the_charge_sheath_vortex.html . dead .
  38. Web site: Ett fenomen som gäckar vetenskapen . sv. Uppsala University . Anders . Larsson . 23 April 2002 . 19 November 2007.
  39. Web site: Lightning strike wrecked my TV . 5 March 2005 . Guernsey Press.
  40. Web site: Byla to koule s dvoumetrovým ocasem, popisuje dispečerka kulový blesk . cs . Zpravy.idnes.cz . 11 July 2011. 21 January 2014.
  41. Web site: The Aviation Herald. avherald.com.
  42. Web site: European Severe Weather Database . European Severe Weather Database . European Severe Storms Laboratory.
  43. Focus: First Spectrum of Ball Lightning. Ball. Philip. Philip Ball. 17 January 2014. Physics. 10.1103/Physics.7.5. 7. 5. 2014PhyOJ...7....5B .
  44. Web site: The New Wizard of the West . Chauncy Montgomery M'Govern . May 1899 . . homepage.ntlworld.com . 13 July 2009 . https://web.archive.org/web/20081006032927/http://homepage.ntlworld.com/forgottenfutures/tesla/tesla.htm . 2008-10-06 . dead.
  45. Tesla, Nikola (1978). Nikola Tesla – Colorado Springs Notes 1899–1900. Nolit (Beograd, Yugoslavia), 368–370.
  46. Web site: Tenth international syposium on ball lightning/ International symposium III on unconventional plasmas. Anon. 2008. ICBL. 10 May 2010.
  47. Web site: ISBL-12 . 4 June 2012 . dead. https://web.archive.org/web/20120604074802/http://www.cose.txstate.edu/isbl_12.html . 4 June 2012 .
  48. Ohtsuki . Y. H. . H. Ofuruton . 4321381 . 1991 . Plasma fireballs formed by microwave interference in air . Nature . 350 . 6314. 139–141 . 1991Natur.350..139O. 10.1038/350139a0.
  49. Ohtsuki . Y. H. . H. Ofuruton . 1991 . Plasma fireballs formed by microwave interference in air (Corrections) . Nature . 353 . 6347. 868 . 1991Natur.353..868O. 10.1038/353868a0. free .
  50. Web site: . 'Ball lightning' created in German laboratory . Cosmos Online . 7 June 2006 . 13 July 2009 . https://web.archive.org/web/20060711194644/http://www.cosmosmagazine.com/node/334 . 2006-07-11 . dead.
  51. Fireball Generation in a Water Discharge . Youichi Sakawa . Kazuyoshi Sugiyama . Tetsuo Tanabe . Richard More . Plasma and Fusion Research . 1 . 039 . January 2006. 2006PFR.....1...39S . 10.1585/pfr.1.039 . free .
  52. Web site: How to make a Stable Plasmoid (Ball Lightning) with the GMR (Graphite Microwave Resonator) by Jean-Louis Naudin . Jlnlabs.online.fr . 22 December 2005 . 13 July 2009. https://web.archive.org/web/20090626155549/http://jlnlabs.online.fr/plasma/gmr/index.htm. 26 June 2009 . live.
  53. Web site: Creating the 4th state of matter with microwaves by Halina Stanley. scienceinschool.org. 13 August 2009 . 6 October 2009. https://web.archive.org/web/20091031100909/http://www.scienceinschool.org/2009/issue12/fireballs. 31 October 2009 . live.
  54. Web site: Universidade Federal de Pernambuco . Ufpe.br . 13 July 2009. https://web.archive.org/web/20090621072728/http://www.ufpe.br/. 21 June 2009 . live.
  55. Web site: Pesquisadores da UFPE geram, em laboratório, fenômeno atmosférico conhecido como bolas luminosas . Ufpe.br . 16 January 2007. 13 July 2009 . 20 December 2008 . https://web.archive.org/web/20081220115152/http://www.ufpe.br/new/visualizar.php?id=5005 .
  56. News: Ball Lightning Mystery Solved? Electrical Phenomenon Created in Lab. Handwerk. Brian. National Geographic News. 22 January 2007. https://web.archive.org/web/20070210072832/http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2007/01/070122-ball-lightning.html. 10 February 2007. dead.
  57. Book: Snow Harris, William. On the nature of thunderstorms (originally published in 1843). Bastian Books. 2008. Reprint. 34–43. Section I. 978-0-554-87861-4. https://books.google.com/books?id=XSdHnUv1MKwC.
  58. François Arago, Meteorological Essays by, Longman, 1855
  59. Paiva . Gerson Silva . Antonio Carlos Pavão . Elder Alpes de Vasconcelos . Odim Mendes Jr. . Eronides Felisberto da Silva Jr. . 2007. Production of Ball-Lightning-Like Luminous Balls by Electrical Discharges in Silicon. Phys. Rev. Lett.. 98 . 10.1103/PhysRevLett.98.048501. 048501 . 17358820 . 4 . 2007PhRvL..98d8501P.
  60. Lightning balls created in the lab. New Scientist. 10 January 2007. A more down-to-earth theory, proposed by John Abrahamson and James Dinniss at the University of Canterbury in Christchurch, New Zealand, is that ball lightning forms when lightning strikes soil, turning any silica in the soil into pure silicon vapour. As the vapour cools, the silicon condenses into a floating aerosol bound into a ball by charges that gather on its surface, and it glows with the heat of silicon recombining with oxygen..
  61. Web site: [ftp://ftp.aip.org/epaps/phys_rev_lett/E-PRLTAO-98-047705/ Index of /Epaps/Phys_rev_lett/E-PRLTAO-98-047705 ]. 6 April 2007 . 7 November 2018 . https://web.archive.org/web/20181107032310/http://ftp.aip.org/epaps/phys_rev_lett/E-PRLTAO-98-047705/ . dead .
  62. Slezak. Michael. Natural ball lightning probed for the first time. New Scientist. 221. 2953. 17. 17 January 2014. 2014NewSc.221...17S. 2014. 10.1016/S0262-4079(14)60173-1.
  63. Abrahamson . John . Ball lightning caused by oxidation of nanoparticle networks from normal lightning strikes on soil . Nature . 403 . 6769 . 519–21 . 2000 . 10.1038/35000525 . James . 10676954 . 2000Natur.403..519A . Dinniss . 4387046 .
  64. Web site: The dirty secret behind ball lightning is dirt. Matthew. Francis. 22 January 2014. Ars Technica.
  65. Muldrew . D. B. . 1990 . The Physical Nature of Ball Lightning . Geophysical Research Letters . 17 . 12 . 2277–2280 . 10.1029/GL017i012p02277 . 1990GeoRL..17.2277M .
  66. Muldrew . D. B. . 10.5194/angeo-28-223-2010 . Solid charged-core model of ball lightning . Annales Geophysicae . 28 . 1 . 223–2010 . 2010 . 2010AnGeo..28..223M . free .
  67. Pyotr Kapitsa. Капица . П. Л. . 1955. ru:О природе шаровой молнии. Докл. Акад. наук СССР . 101 . 245 . ru . On the nature of ball lightning.
  68. Encyclopedia: Kapitsa . Peter L.. Pyotr Kapitsa. Donald J. Ritchie . Ball Lightning: A Collection of Soviet Research in English Translation . The Nature of Ball Lightning . 1961 . 1955 . Consultants Bureau, New York . 717403. 11–16 . 9780835759502.
  69. Handel . Peter H. . Jean-François Leitner . 1994 . Development of the maser-caviton ball lightning theory . J. Geophys. Res. . 99 . D5 . 10689 . https://archive.today/20120713173033/http://europa.agu.org/?view=article&uri=/journals/jd/93JD01021.xml . dead . 13 July 2012 . 1994JGR....9910689H . 10.1029/93JD01021 .
  70. Wu . H. C. . Relativistic-microwave theory of ball lightning . Scientific Reports . 6 . 28263 . June 2019 . 10.1038/srep28263 . 27328835 . 4916449 . 1411.4784 . 2016NatSR...628263W .
  71. Web site: Rubinstein, J. Inspire HEP. 6 March 2017.
  72. Book: Electron gas oscillations in plasma. Theory and applications. Advances in Plasma Physics Research. 5. 2007. Maxim. Dvornikov. Sergey. Dvornikov. Gerard. F.. 197–212. physics/0306157. 978-1-59033-928-2. 2003physics...6157D. 20 December 2018. https://web.archive.org/web/20151208193905/https://www.novapublishers.com/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=4460&osCsid=ec1a1f3a9282cfe1dc8d32da111c4b73. 8 December 2015. dead.
  73. Formation of bound states of electrons in spherically symmetric oscillations of plasma. Physica Scripta. 81. 5. 055502. 10.1088/0031-8949/81/05/055502. Maxim. Dvornikov. 1002.0764. 2010PhyS...81e5502D . 2010. 116939689.
  74. Axially and spherically symmetric solitons in warm plasma. Journal of Plasma Physics. 2011-12-01. 1469-7807. 749–764. 77. 6. 10.1017/S002237781100016X. Maxim. Dvornikov. 1010.0701. 2011JPlPh..77..749D . 118505800.
  75. Stable spatial Langmuir solitons. Physics Letters A. 2005-02-28. 46–52. 336. 1. 10.1016/j.physleta.2004.11.063. T. A.. Davydova. A. I.. Yakimenko. Yu. A.. Zaliznyak. 2005PhLA..336...46D . physics/0408023. 119369758.
  76. Dvornikov. Maxim. 2012-02-08. Effective attraction between oscillating electrons in a plasmoid via acoustic wave exchange. Proc. R. Soc. A. 468. 2138. 415–428. 1102.0944. 2012RSPSA.468..415D. 10.1098/rspa.2011.0276. 28359324. 1364-5021.
  77. Dvornikov. Maxim. 2013. Pairing of charged particles in a quantum plasmoid. Journal of Physics A: Mathematical and Theoretical. 46. 4. 045501. 1208.2208. 2013JPhA...46d5501D. 10.1088/1751-8113/46/4/045501. 118523275.
  78. A model for ball lightning. Nature. 1980-03-13. 150–151. 284. 5752. 10.1038/284150a0. G. C.. Dijkhuis. 4269441. 1980Natur.284..150D .
  79. Dvornikov. Maxim. 2012-11-01. Quantum exchange interaction of spherically symmetric plasmoids. Journal of Atmospheric and Solar-Terrestrial Physics. 89. 2012. 62–66. 1112.0239. 2012JASTP..89...62D. 10.1016/j.jastp.2012.08.005. 119268742.
  80. Coleman . PF . 1993 . Weather . 48 . 1 . 30 . An explanation for ball lightning? . 10.1002/j.1477-8696.1993.tb07221.x. 1993Wthr...48...27. .
  81. Meshcheryakov. Oleg . 2007. Ball Lightning–Aerosol Electrochemical Power Source or A Cloud of Batteries. Nanoscale Res. Lett.. 2 . 3. 3246378 . 10.1007/s11671-007-9068-2. 319–330. 2007NRL.....2..319M . free.
  82. Meshcheryakov . Oleg . How and why electrostatic charge of combustible nanoparticles can radically change the mechanism and rate of their oxidation in humid atmosphere . 1008.0162 . physics.plasm-ph . 1 August 2010.
  83. Web site: Unidentified Aerial Phenomena in the UK, Air Defence Region, Executive Summary . December 2000 . 7. . disclosureproject.org . https://web.archive.org/web/20170422214024/http://www.disclosureproject.org/docs/pdf/uap_exec_summary_dec00.pdf . 22 April 2017 . dead.
  84. Book: Stenhoff . Mark . James . Adrian . Extreme weather : forty years of the Tornado and Storm Research Organisation (TORRO) . 2016 . Wiley . Hoboken, NJ . 978-1118949962 . 227–228 .
  85. http://www.el.angstrom.uu.se/meny/artiklar/ball%20lightning.pdf Could some ball lightning observations be optical hallucinations caused by epileptic seizures
  86. Peer, J. . Kendl, A. . 10.1016/j.physleta.2010.05.023 . Physics Letters A . 374 . Transcranial stimulability of phosphenes by long lightning electromagnetic pulses . 29 . 2932–2935 . 2010 . 1005.1153. 2010PhLA..374.2932P. 119276495 .
    • Erratum: Physics Letters A . 347 . 47 . 4797–4799. 10.1016/j.physleta.2010.09.071. Erratum and addendum to "Transcranial stimulability of phosphenes by long lightning electromagnetic pulses" [Phys. Lett. A 374 (2010) 2932] . 2010 . Peer . J. . Cooray . V. . Cooray . G. . Kendl . A. . 2010PhLA..374.4797P . free .
  87. https://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/05/19/ball_lightning_actually_magno_brain_images/ Ball lightning is all in the mind, say Austrian physicists
  88. Web site: Emerging Technology . Magnetically Induced Hallucinations Explain Ball Lightning, Say Physicists . . 2010-05-11 . 2020-07-06.
  89. Manykin . E. A. . Ojovan . M. I. . Poluektov . P. P. . 96732651 . Samartsev . Vitaly V . 10.1117/12.675004 . Rydberg matter: Properties and decay. Proceedings of the SPIE . 6181 . SPIE Proceedings . 618105–618105–9 . 2006 . 2006SPIE.6181E..05M .
  90. Norman . G. É. . 120857543 . 10.1134/1.1355396 . Rydberg matter as a metastable state of strongly nonideal plasma . Journal of Experimental and Theoretical Physics Letters . 73 . 1 . 10–12 . 2001 . 2001JETPL..73...10N .
  91. Manykin . E. A. . Zelener . B. B. . Zelener . B. V. . 121748296 . 10.1134/S0021364010210125 . Thermodynamic and kinetic properties of nonideal Rydberg matter . JETP Letters . 92 . 9 . 630 . 2011 . 2010JETPL..92..630M .
  92. Holmlid . L. . Direct observation of circular Rydberg electrons in a Rydberg matter surface layer by electronic circular dichroism . 10.1088/0953-8984/19/27/276206 . Journal of Physics: Condensed Matter . 19 . 27 . 276206. 2007 . 2007JPCM...19A6206H . 95032480 .
  93. Endean . V. G. . 4194750 . Ball lightning as electromagnetic energy . 10.1038/263753a0 . Nature . 263 . 5580 . 753–755 . 1976 . 1976Natur.263..753E .
  94. Book: Singer, Stanley. The Nature of Ball Lightning. New York. Plenum Press. 1971.
  95. Smirnov 1987, Physics Reports, (Review Section of Physical Letters), 152, No. 4, pp. 177–226.
  96. Zelikin . M. I. . 123066140 . Superconductivity of plasma and fireballs . 10.1007/s10958-008-9047-x . Journal of Mathematical Sciences . 151 . 6 . 3473–3496 . 2008 . free .
  97. Relativistic-microwave theory of ball lightning. Scientific Reports. 6. 28263. Wu. H.-C. . 2016. 10.1038/srep28263. 27328835. 4916449. 2016NatSR...628263W. 1411.4784.
  98. Ball Lightning: Bubbles of Electronic Plasma Oscillations. Journal of Unconventional Electromagnetics and Plasmas. Meessen. A.. 4. 163–179. 2012. 17 April 2019. 17 April 2019. https://web.archive.org/web/20190417133352/http://www.meessen.net/AMeessen/Ball-Lightning-Theory.pdf. dead.

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Ball lightning".

Except where otherwise indicated, Everything.Explained.Today is © Copyright 2009-2024, A B Cryer, All Rights Reserved. Cookie policy.