Ball lightning - an unusual natural phenomenon, which is a luminous clot electric current. In nature, it is almost impossible to meet it, even some scientists argue that it is impossible.

How ball lightning occurs

Most experts say that ball lightning appears after a normal lightning strike. They can be as large as a regular peach and reach the size of a soccer ball. The color of ball lightning can be orange, yellow, red or bright white. With each approach of the ball, you can hear a terrible buzzing and hissing.

The lifetime of ball lightning can reach several minutes. There is one theory that claims that ball lightning is a copy of a small thundercloud. Perhaps the smallest dust particles constantly exist in the air, and lightning, in turn, gives an electric charge to the dust particles in a particular area of the air. Some dust particles are negatively charged, while others are positively charged. Then, millions of small lightning bolts connect oppositely charged dust particles, and then a sparkling round ball is created in the air.

Ball lightning is a fairly rare natural phenomenon.
At the moment, it is impossible to say exactly how ball lightning occurs. There are hundreds of theories that explain its appearance, but none of them have been proven.
In 1638, ball lightning was first documented. In those days, she flew into the church during a thunderstorm.
Ball lightning can easily melt window glass.
Most often, ball lightning enters an apartment through doors and windows.
The speed of movement of this natural phenomenon can reach up to 10 meters per second.
It is assumed that the temperature in the center of the ball is thousands of degrees.

Ball lightning

Ball lightning- a luminous ball floating in the air, a uniquely rare natural phenomenon, a single physical theory the occurrence and course of which has not been presented so far. There are about 400 theories explaining the phenomenon, but none of them has received absolute recognition in the academic environment. Under laboratory conditions, similar but short-term phenomena were obtained by several different ways, but the question of the unique nature of ball lightning remains open. As of the end of the 20th century, not a single experimental stand was created on which this natural phenomenon would be artificially reproduced in accordance with the descriptions of eyewitnesses of ball lightning.

It is widely believed that ball lightning is a phenomenon of electrical origin, of natural nature, that is, it is a special type of lightning that exists long time and having the shape of a ball, capable of moving along an unpredictable, sometimes surprising trajectory for eyewitnesses.

Traditionally, the reliability of many ball lightning eyewitness accounts remains in doubt, including:

by the very fact of observing at least some phenomenon;
the fact of observing ball lightning, and not some other phenomenon;
individual details given in the eyewitness account of the phenomenon.

Doubts about the reliability of many testimonies complicate the study of the phenomenon, and also create grounds for the emergence of various speculative sensational materials allegedly related to this phenomenon.

Ball lightning usually appears in thunderstorm, stormy weather; often, but not necessarily, along with regular lightning. But there is a lot of evidence of its observation in sunny weather. Most often, it seems to “leave” the conductor or is generated by ordinary lightning, sometimes descends from the clouds, in rare cases it suddenly appears in the air or, as eyewitnesses report, it can come out of some object (tree, pillar).

Due to the fact that the appearance of ball lightning as a natural phenomenon is rare, and attempts to artificially reproduce it on the scale of a natural phenomenon fail, the main material for studying ball lightning is the evidence of casual eyewitnesses unprepared for observations, nevertheless, some evidence describes in great detail ball lightning and the reliability of these materials is beyond doubt. In some cases, contemporary eyewitnesses have photographed and/or filmed the phenomenon.

Observation history

Stories about observations of ball lightning have been known for two thousand years. In the first half of the 19th century, the French physicist, astronomer and naturalist F. Arago, perhaps the first in the history of civilization, collected and systematized all evidence of the appearance of ball lightning known at that time. In his book, 30 cases of observation of ball lightning were described. The statistics are small, and it is not surprising that many physicists of the 19th century, including Kelvin and Faraday, were inclined during their lifetime to believe that this was either an optical illusion or a phenomenon of a completely different, non-electrical nature. However, the number of cases, the detail of the description of the phenomenon and the reliability of the evidence increased, which attracted the attention of scientists, including prominent physicists.

In the late 1940s P. L. Kapitsa worked on the explanation of ball lightning.

A great contribution to the work on the observation and description of ball lightning was made by the Soviet scientist I.P. Stakhanov, who, together with S.L. Lopatnikov, in the journal Knowledge is Power in the 1970s. published an article on ball lightning. At the end of this article, he attached a questionnaire and asked eyewitnesses to send him their detailed recollections of this phenomenon. As a result, he accumulated extensive statistics - more than a thousand cases, which allowed him to generalize some of the properties of ball lightning and offer his theoretical model of ball lightning.

Historical evidence

Thunderstorm at Widecombe Moor
On October 21, 1638, lightning appeared during a thunderstorm in the church of the village of Wydecombe Moor, Devon, England. Eyewitnesses said that a huge fireball about two and a half meters across flew into the church. He knocked out several large stones and wooden beams from the walls of the church. Then the ball allegedly broke the benches, broke many windows and filled the room with thick dark smoke with the smell of sulfur. Then it split in half; the first ball flew out, breaking another window, the second disappeared somewhere inside the church. As a result, 4 people died and 60 were injured. The phenomenon was explained by the "coming of the devil", or "hell fire" and blamed for everything on two people who dared to play cards during the sermon.

Incident aboard the Catherine & Marie
In December 1726, some British newspapers printed an extract from a letter from a certain John Howell, who was on board the sloop "Catherine and Mary". “On August 29, we were walking along the bay off the coast of Florida, when suddenly a ball flew out of a part of the ship. He smashed our mast into 10,000 pieces, if that were even possible, and blew the beam to pieces. Also, the ball pulled out three boards from the side skin, from the underwater one and three from the deck; killed one man, injured the hand of another, and if it were not for the heavy rains, then our sails would have been simply destroyed by fire.

Incident aboard the Montag
The impressive size of the lightning is reported from the words of the ship's doctor Gregory in 1749. Admiral Chambers, aboard the Montag, went up on deck around noon to measure the ship's coordinates. He spotted a fairly large blue fireball about three miles away. The order was immediately given to lower the topsails, but the ball was moving very fast, and before it could change course, it flew up almost vertically and, being no more than forty or fifty yards above the rig, disappeared with a powerful explosion, which is described as a simultaneous volley of a thousand guns. The top of the mainmast was destroyed. Five people were knocked down, one of them received multiple bruises. The ball left behind a strong smell of sulfur; before the explosion, its value reached the size of a millstone.

Death of Georg Richmann
In 1753, Georg Richmann, a full member of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences, died from a ball lightning strike. He invented a device for studying atmospheric electricity, so when he heard at the next meeting that a thunderstorm was coming, he urgently went home with an engraver to capture the phenomenon. During the experiment, a bluish-orange ball flew out of the device and hit the scientist right in the forehead. There was a deafening roar, similar to the shot of a gun. Richman fell dead, and the engraver was stunned and knocked down. He later described what happened. A small dark crimson speck remained on the scientist's forehead, his clothes were scorched, his shoes were torn. The doorposts shattered into splinters, and the door itself was blown off its hinges. Later, M. V. Lomonosov personally inspected the scene.

The Warren Hastings incident
A British publication reported that in 1809 the Warren Hastings was "attacked by three balls of fire" during a storm. The crew saw one of them go down and kill a man on deck. The one who decided to take the body was hit by the second ball; he was knocked down and had minor burns on his body. The third ball killed another person. The crew noted that after the incident, there was a disgusting smell of sulfur above the deck.

Remarque in the literature of 1864
In the 1864 edition of A Guide to the Scientific Knowledge of Things Familiar, Ebenezer Cobham Brewer discusses "ball lightning". In his description, lightning appears as a slowly moving fireball of explosive gas, which sometimes descends to the earth and moves along its surface. It is also noted that the balls can split into smaller balls and explode "like a cannon shot."

Description in the book Lightning and Glow by Wilfried de Fontvieille
Book French author reports about 150 ball lightning encounters: “Apparently, ball lightning is strongly attracted by metal objects, so they often end up near balcony railings, water and gas pipes. They do not have a specific color, their shade may be different, for example, in Köthen in the Duchy of Anhalt, lightning was green. M. Colon, Vice-President of the Geological Society of Paris, saw the ball slowly descend along the bark of a tree. Touching the surface of the ground, he jumped and disappeared without an explosion. On September 10, 1845, in the Correze Valley, lightning flew into the kitchen of one of the houses in the village of Salagnac. The ball rolled through the entire room without causing any damage to the people there. When he reached the barn bordering the kitchen, he suddenly exploded and killed a pig accidentally locked there. The animal was not familiar with the wonders of thunder and lightning, so it dared to smell in the most obscene and inappropriate way. Lightning does not move very fast: some have even seen them stop, but this does not make the balls less destructive. Lightning that flew into the church of the city of Stralsund, during the explosion, threw out several small balls, which also exploded like artillery shells.

Case from the life of Nicholas II
The last Russian Emperor Nicholas II, in the presence of his grandfather Alexander II, observed a phenomenon that he called a "ball of fire". He recalled: “When my parents were away, my grandfather and I performed the rite of the all-night vigil in the Alexandria Church. There was a strong thunderstorm; it seemed that lightning, following one after another, was ready to shake the church and the whole world right to the ground. It suddenly became completely dark when a gust of wind opened the gates of the church and put out the candles in front of the iconostasis. There was more thunder than usual, and I saw a fireball fly through the window. The ball (it was lightning) circled on the floor, flew past the candelabra and flew out through the door into the park. My heart sank with fear and I looked at my grandfather - but his face was completely calm. He crossed himself with the same calmness as when lightning flew past us. Then I thought that to be frightened like me is inappropriate and unmanly ... After the ball flew out, I again looked at my grandfather. He smiled slightly and nodded at me. My fear disappeared and I was never afraid of a thunderstorm again.

A story from the life of Aleister Crowley
The famous British occultist Aleister Crowley spoke of what he called "ball-shaped electricity" and which he observed in 1916 during a thunderstorm on Pasconee Lake in New Hampshire. He took refuge in a small country house when “I noticed in silent astonishment that at a distance of six inches from my right knee a dazzling ball of electric fire three to six inches in diameter had stopped. I looked at him, and he suddenly exploded with a sharp sound that could not be confused with what was rampant outside: the noise of a thunderstorm, the sound of hail, or streams of water and crackling wood. My hand was closest to the ball and it only felt a slight impact."

Other evidence

During World War II, submariners repeatedly and consistently reported small fireballs occurring in the confined space of a submarine. They appeared when the battery was turned on, turned off, or incorrectly turned on, or in the event of a disconnection or incorrect connection of highly inductive electric motors. Attempts to reproduce the phenomenon using the submarine's spare battery ended in failure and explosion.

On August 6, 1944, in the Swedish city of Uppsala, ball lightning passed through a closed window, leaving behind a round hole about 5 cm in diameter. The phenomenon was not only observed by local residents, but also the lightning tracking system of Uppsala University, which is located in the department for the study of electricity and lightning, also worked.

In 1954, the physicist Domokos Tar observed lightning in a severe thunderstorm. He described what he saw in sufficient detail. “It happened on Margaret Island on the Danube. It was somewhere between 25-27 degrees Celsius, the sky quickly covered with clouds and a strong thunderstorm began. Nearby there was nothing to hide, only a lone bush nearby, which was bent by the wind to the ground. Suddenly, about 50 meters away from me, lightning struck the ground. It was a very bright channel 25-30 cm in diameter, it was exactly perpendicular to the surface of the earth. It was dark for about two seconds, and then a beautiful ball with a diameter of 30-40 cm appeared at a height of 1.2 m. bush. The ball sparkled like a small sun and rotated counterclockwise. The axis of rotation was parallel to the ground and perpendicular to the bush-hit-ball line. The ball also had one or two red curls, but not so bright, they disappeared after a fraction of a second (~0.3 s). The ball itself slowly moved horizontally along the same line from the bush. Its colors were clear, and the brightness itself was constant over the entire surface. There was no more rotation, the movement took place at a constant height and at a constant speed. I didn't notice any size changes. About three more seconds passed - the ball disappeared abruptly, and completely silently, although due to the noise of the thunderstorm I could not hear it. The author himself suggests that the temperature difference inside and outside the channel of ordinary lightning with the help of a gust of wind formed a kind of vortex ring, from which the observed ball lightning was then formed.

On July 10, 2011, in the Czech city of Liberec, ball lightning appeared in the control building of the city's emergency services. A ball with a two-meter tail jumped to the ceiling directly from the window, fell to the floor, bounced again to the ceiling, flew 2-3 meters, and then fell to the floor and disappeared. This frightened the employees, who smelled burnt wiring and believed that a fire had started. All computers hung (but did not break), communication equipment was out of order for the night until it was repaired. In addition, one monitor was destroyed.

On August 4, 2012, ball lightning frightened a villager in the Pruzhany district of the Brest region. According to the newspaper "Rayonnyya Budni", ball lightning flew into the house during a thunderstorm. Moreover, as the hostess of the house, Nadezhda Vladimirovna Ostapuk, told the publication, the windows and doors in the house were closed and the woman could not understand how the fireball entered the room. Luckily, the woman figured out that she shouldn't make any sudden movements, and just stayed where she was, watching the lightning. Ball lightning flew over her head and discharged into the electrical wiring on the wall. As a result of an unusual natural phenomenon, no one was injured, only the interior decoration of the room was damaged, the newspaper reports.

Artificial reproduction of the phenomenon

Review of approaches for artificial reproduction of ball lightning

Since there is a clear connection in the appearance of ball lightning with other manifestations of atmospheric electricity (for example, ordinary lightning), most of the experiments were carried out according to the following scheme: a gas discharge was created (and the glow of a gas discharge is a well-known thing), and then conditions were sought when the luminous discharge could would exist in the form of a spherical body. But researchers have only short-term gas discharges of a spherical shape, living for a maximum of a few seconds, which does not correspond to eyewitness accounts of natural ball lightning.

List of artificially reproduced ball lightning claims

Several claims have been made about the production of ball lightning in laboratories, but in general there has been a skeptical attitude towards these statements in the academic environment. The question remains open: "Are the phenomena observed in laboratory conditions identical to the natural phenomenon of ball lightning"?

The first detailed studies of a glowing electrodeless discharge were carried out only in 1942 by the Soviet electrical engineer Babat: he managed to obtain a spherical gas discharge inside a low pressure chamber for a few seconds.

Kapitsa was able to obtain a spherical gas discharge at atmospheric pressure in a helium medium. Additives of various organic compounds changed the brightness and color of the glow.

Theoretical explanations of the phenomenon

In our age, when physicists know what happened in the first seconds of the existence of the Universe, and what is happening in black holes that have not yet been discovered, we still have to admit with surprise that the main elements of antiquity - air and water - still remain a mystery to us.

I.P. Stakhanov

Most theories agree that the reason for the formation of any ball lightning is associated with the passage of gases through a region with a large difference in electrical potentials, which causes the ionization of these gases and their compression into a ball.

Experimental verification of existing theories is difficult. Even if we count only the assumptions published in serious scientific journals, then the number of theoretical models that varying degrees success describe the phenomenon and answer these questions is quite large.

Classification of theories

On the basis of the place of the energy source that supports the existence of ball lightning, theories can be divided into two classes: those suggesting an external source, and theories that consider that the source is inside the ball lightning.

Review of existing theories

The following theory assumes that ball lightning is heavy positive and negative air ions formed during an ordinary lightning strike, the recombination of which is prevented by their hydrolysis. Under the influence of electric forces, they gather into a ball and can coexist for quite a long time until their water “fur coat” collapses. This also explains the fact that the different color of ball lightning and its direct dependence on the time of existence of the ball lightning itself - the rate of destruction of water "fur coats" and the beginning of the process of avalanche recombination.

Literature

Books and reports on ball lightning

Stakhanov I.P. ABOUT physical nature ball lightning. - Moscow: (Atomizdat, Energoatomizdat, scientific world), (1979, 1985, 1996). - 240 s.
S. Singer The nature of ball lightning. Per. from English. M.: Mir, 1973, 239 p.
Imyanitov I. M., Tikhiy D. Ya. Beyond the laws of science. Moscow: Atomizdat, 1980
Grigoriev A. I. Ball lightning. Yaroslavl: YarSU, 2006. 200 p.
Lisitsa M. P., Valakh M. Ya. Interesting optics. Atmospheric and space optics. Kyiv: Logos, 2002, 256 p.
Brand W. Der Kugelblitz. Hamburg, Henri Grand, 1923
Stakhanov I.P. On the physical nature of ball lightning M.: Energoatomizdat, 1985, 208 p.
Kunin V. N. Ball lightning at the experimental site. Vladimir: Vladimir State University, 2000, 84 p.

Articles in magazines

Torchigin V. P., Torchigin A. V. Ball lightning as a concentrate of light. Chemistry and Life, 2003, No. 1, 47-49.
Barry J. Ball lightning. Bead lightning. Per. from English. M.: Mir, 1983, 228 p.
Shabanov G.D., Sokolovsky B.Yu.// Plasma Physics Reports. 2005. V31. No. 6. P512.
Shabanov G.D.// Technical Physics Letters. 2002. V28. No. 2. P164.

Ball lightning in fiction

Russell, Eric Frank"Sinister barrier" 1939

Notes

I. Stakhanov "Physicist who knew more about ball lightning"
Such a Russian variant of the name is listed in the list of UK telephone codes. There are also variants of Widecomb-in-the-Moor and direct dubbing of the original English Widecomb-in-the-Moor - Widecomb-in-the-Moor
Conductor from Kazan saved passengers from ball lightning
Ball lightning scared a villager in the Brest region [email protected]
K. L. Corum, J. F. Corum “Experiments on the creation of ball lightning using a high-frequency discharge and electrochemical fractal clusters”//UFN, 1990, v.160, issue 4.
A. I. Egorova, S. I. Stepanova and G. D. Shabanova, Demonstration of ball lightning in the laboratory, UFN, vol. 174, issue 1, pp. 107-109, (2004)
P. L. Kapitsa On the nature of ball lightning DAN USSR 1955. Volume 101, No. 2, pp. 245-248.
B.M. Smirnov, Physics Reports, 224 (1993) 151, Smirnov B.M. Physics of ball lightning // UFN, 1990, v.160. issue 4. p.1-45
D. J. Turner, Physics Reports 293 (1998) 1
E.A. Manykin, M.I. Ozhovan, P.P. Poluektov. Condensed Rydberg matter. Nature, No. 1 (1025), 22-30 (2001). http://www.fidel-kastro.ru/nature/vivovoco.nns.ru/VV/JOURNAL/NATURE/01_01/RIDBERG.HTM
A. I. Klimov, D. M. Melnichenko, N. N. Sukovatkin “LONG-LIVING ENERGY-INTENSIVE EXCITED FORMATIONS AND PLASMOIDS IN LIQUID NITROGEN”
Segev M.G. Phys. Today, 51 (8) (1998), 42
"V. P. Torchigin, 2003. On the nature of ball lightning. DAN, vol. 389, no. 3, pp. 41-44.

Where does ball lightning come from and what is it? Scientists have been asking themselves this question for many decades in a row, and so far there is no clear answer. A stable plasma ball resulting from a powerful high-frequency discharge. Another hypothesis is antimatter micrometeorites.
In total, there are more than 400 unproven hypotheses.

…A barrier with a spherical surface can appear between matter and antimatter. Powerful gamma radiation will inflate this ball from the inside, and prevent the penetration of matter to the alien antimatter, and then we will see a glowing pulsating ball that will soar above the Earth. This view appears to have been confirmed. Two British scientists methodically inspected the sky with gamma-ray detectors. And registered four times abnormally high level gamma radiation in the expected energy region.

The first documented case of the appearance of ball lightning took place in 1638 in England, in one of the churches in Devon. As a result of the atrocities of a huge fireball, 4 people died, about 60 were injured. Subsequently, new reports of such phenomena periodically appeared, but there were few of them, since eyewitnesses considered ball lightning an illusion or an optical illusion.

The first generalization of cases of a unique natural phenomenon was made by the Frenchman F. Arago in the middle of the 19th century; about 30 testimonies were collected in his statistics. The growing number of such meetings made it possible to obtain, based on the descriptions of eyewitnesses, some of the characteristics inherent in the heavenly guest. Ball lightning is an electrical phenomenon, a fireball moving in the air in an unpredictable direction, luminous, but not radiating heat. On this general properties the particulars characteristic of each of the cases end and begin. This is due to the fact that the nature of ball lightning has not been fully understood, since so far it has not been possible to study this phenomenon in the laboratory or to recreate a model for study. In some cases, the diameter of the fireball was several centimeters, sometimes reaching half a meter.

For several hundred years, ball lightning has been the object of study by many scientists, including N. Tesla, G. I. Babat, P. L. Kapitsa, B. Smirnov, I. P. Stakhanov and others. Scientists have put forward various theories of the occurrence of ball lightning, of which there are over 200. According to one of the versions, an electromagnetic wave formed between the earth and clouds reaches a critical amplitude at a certain moment and forms a spherical gas discharge. Another version is that ball lightning consists of plasma high density and contains its own microwave radiation field. Some scientists believe that the fireball phenomenon is the result of focusing cosmic rays clouds. Most cases of this phenomenon were recorded before a thunderstorm and during a thunderstorm, so the most relevant hypothesis is the emergence of an energetically favorable environment for the appearance of various plasma formations, one of which is lightning. The opinions of experts agree that when meeting with a heavenly guest, you must adhere to certain rules of conduct. The main thing is not to make sudden movements, not to run away, try to minimize air vibrations.

Their "behavior" is unpredictable, the trajectory and speed of flight defy any explanation. They, as if endowed with reason, can go around the obstacles facing them - trees, buildings and structures, or they can “crash” into them. After this collision, fires can start.

Often fireballs fly into people's homes. Through open windows and doors, chimneys, pipes. But sometimes even through a closed window! There is a lot of evidence of how CMM melted window glass, leaving behind a perfectly even round hole.

According to eyewitnesses, fireballs appeared from the outlet! They “live” from one to 12 minutes. They can simply disappear instantly without leaving any traces behind, but they can also explode. The latter is especially dangerous. Fatal burns can result from these explosions. It was also noticed that after the explosion, a rather persistent, very unpleasant smell of sulfur remains in the air.

Fireballs come in different colors - from white to black, from yellow to blue. When moving, they often hum like high-voltage power lines hum.

It remains a big mystery what affects the trajectory of its movement. It's definitely not the wind, as she can move against it as well. It is not a difference in the atmospheric phenomenon. These are not people and not other living organisms, since sometimes it can peacefully fly around them, and sometimes “crash” into them, which leads to death.

Ball lightning is evidence of our very unimportant knowledge of such a seemingly ordinary and already studied phenomenon as electricity. None of the previously put forward hypotheses has yet explained all its quirks. What is proposed in this article may not even be a hypothesis, but only an attempt to describe the phenomenon in a physical way without resorting to the exotic, like antimatter. The first and main assumption: ball lightning is a discharge of ordinary lightning that has not reached the Earth. More precisely: ball and linear lightning are one process, but in two different modes - fast and slow.
When switching from a slow mode to a fast one, the process becomes explosive - ball lightning turns into a linear one. The reverse transition of linear lightning into ball lightning is also possible; In some mysterious, or perhaps accidental way, this transition was managed by the talented physicist Richman, a contemporary and friend of Lomonosov. He paid for his luck with his life: the fireball he received killed its creator.
Ball lightning and the invisible atmospheric charge path connecting it with the cloud are in a special state of "elma". Elma, unlike plasma - low-temperature electrified air - is stable, cools down and spreads very slowly. This is due to the properties of the boundary layer between the elm and ordinary air. Here the charges exist in the form of negative ions, bulky and inactive. Calculations show that elms spread in as much as 6.5 minutes, and they are replenished regularly every thirtieth of a second. It is through such a time interval that an electromagnetic pulse passes in the discharge path, replenishing Kolobok with energy.

Therefore, the duration of the existence of ball lightning is, in principle, unlimited. The process should stop only when the charge of the cloud is exhausted, more precisely, the “effective charge” that the cloud is able to transfer to the path. This is exactly how the fantastic energy and relative stability of ball lightning can be explained: it exists due to the influx of energy from outside. So neutrino phantoms in Lem's science fiction novel "Solaris", possessing materiality ordinary people and incredible power, could exist only with the receipt of colossal energy from the living Ocean.
The electric field in ball lightning is close in magnitude to the level of breakdown in a dielectric, whose name is air. In such a field, the optical levels of atoms are excited, which is why ball lightning glows. In theory, weak, non-luminous, and hence invisible ball lightning should be more frequent.
The process in the atmosphere develops in the mode of ball or linear lightning, depending on the specific conditions in the path. There is nothing incredible, rare in this duality. Consider ordinary combustion. It is possible in the regime of slow flame propagation, which does not exclude the regime of a rapidly moving detonation wave.

…Lightning descends from the sky. It is not yet clear what it should be, ball or ordinary. It greedily sucks the charge out of the cloud, and the field in the track decreases accordingly. If the field in the path falls below a critical value before it hits the Earth, the process will switch to the ball lightning mode, the path will become invisible, and we will notice that ball lightning descends to the Earth.

In this case, the external field is much smaller than the ball lightning's own field and does not affect its motion. That is why bright lightning moves randomly. Between flashes, ball lightning glows weaker, its charge is small. The motion is now directed by the external field and therefore rectilinear. Ball lightning can be carried by the wind. And it's clear why. After all, the negative ions that it consists of are the same air molecules, only with electrons attached to them.

The rebounding of ball lightning from the near-Earth "trampoline" layer of air is simply explained. When ball lightning approaches the Earth, it induces a charge in the soil, begins to release a lot of energy, heats up, expands and quickly rises under the action of the Archimedean force.

Ball lightning plus the Earth's surface form an electrical capacitor. It is known that a capacitor and a dielectric attract each other. Therefore, ball lightning tends to be located above dielectric bodies, which means it prefers to be above wooden bridges, or above a barrel of water. The long-wavelength radio emission associated with ball lightning is generated by the entire path of ball lightning.

The hissing of ball lightning is caused by bursts of electromagnetic activity. These flashes follow with a frequency of about 30 hertz. The hearing threshold of the human ear is 16 hertz.

Ball lightning is surrounded by its own electromagnetic field. Flying past a light bulb, it can inductively heat up and burn out its coil. Once in the wiring of the lighting, radio broadcasting or telephone network, it closes its entire route to this network. Therefore, during a thunderstorm, it is desirable to keep the networks grounded, say, through discharge gaps.

Ball lightning, "flattened" over a barrel of water, together with the charges induced in the ground, constitutes a capacitor with a dielectric. Ordinary water is not an ideal dielectric, it has a significant electrical conductivity. A current begins to flow inside such a capacitor. Water is heated by Joule heat. The "barrel experiment" is well known, when ball lightning heated about 18 liters of water to a boil. According to a theoretical estimate, the average power of ball lightning during its free soaring in the air is approximately 3 kilowatts.

In exceptional cases, for example, under artificial conditions, an electrical breakdown can occur inside ball lightning. And then plasma appears in it! In this case, a lot of energy is released, artificial ball lightning can shine brighter than the sun. But usually the power of ball lightning is relatively small - it is in the Elma state. Apparently, the transition of artificial ball lightning from the Elma state to the plasma state is possible in principle.

Knowing the nature of the electric Kolobok, you can make it work. Artificial ball lightning can greatly surpass natural in power. By drawing an ionized trace in the atmosphere with a focused laser beam along a given trajectory, we can direct the fireball to the right place. Now let's change the supply voltage, transfer the ball lightning to the linear mode. Giant sparks obediently rush along the trajectory we have chosen, crushing rocks, felling trees.

Thunderstorm over the airport. The air terminal is paralyzed: the landing and takeoff of planes is prohibited ... But the start button is pressed on the control panel of the lightning dissipative system. From a tower near the airfield, a fiery arrow shot up to the clouds. It was the artificial controlled ball lightning that had risen above the tower, switched to the linear lightning mode and, rushing into the thundercloud, entered it. The lightning path connected the cloud with the Earth, and the electric charge of the cloud was discharged to the Earth. The process can be repeated several times. There will be no more thunderstorms, the clouds have cleared. Planes can land and take off again.

In the Arctic it will be possible to ignite artificial sun. From the 200-meter tower, a 300-meter charge path of artificial ball lightning rises up. Ball lightning switches to plasma mode and shines brightly from a height of half a kilometer above the city.

For good illumination in a circle with a radius of 5 kilometers, ball lightning is sufficient, emitting a power of several hundred megawatts. In an artificial plasma regime, such a power is a solvable problem.

The Electric Gingerbread Man, which has avoided close acquaintance with scientists for so many years, will not leave: sooner or later it will be tamed, and it will learn to benefit people. B. Kozlov.

1. What is ball lightning is still not known for certain. Physicists have not yet learned how to reproduce real ball lightning in the laboratory. Of course, they get something, but scientists don’t know how similar this “something” is to a real fireball.

2. When there is no experimental data, scientists turn to statistics - to observations, eyewitness accounts, rare photos. In fact, rare: if there are at least one hundred thousand photographs of ordinary lightning in the world, then there are much fewer photographs of ball lightning - only six to eight dozen.

3. The color of ball lightning can be different: red, dazzling white, blue, and even black. Witnesses saw fireballs in all shades of green and orange.

4. Judging by the name, all lightning should have the shape of a ball, but no, both pear-shaped and egg-shaped were observed. Particularly lucky observers were lightning in the form of a cone, ring, cylinder, and even in the form of a jellyfish. Someone saw a white tail behind the lightning.

5. According to the observations of scientists and eyewitness accounts, ball lightning can appear in a house through a window, a door, a stove, or even just appear out of nowhere. And it can also “blow out” from an electrical outlet. Outdoors, ball lightning can come from a tree and a pole, descend from clouds, or be born from ordinary lightning.

6. Usually ball lightning is small - fifteen centimeters in diameter or the size of a soccer ball, but there are also five-meter giants. Ball lightning does not live long - usually no more than half an hour, it moves horizontally, sometimes rotating, at a speed of several meters per second, sometimes it hangs motionless in the air.

7. Ball lightning shines like a hundred-watt light bulb, sometimes crackles or squeaks, and usually causes radio interference. Sometimes it smells - nitric oxide or the hellish smell of sulfur. With luck, it will quietly dissolve into the air, but more often it explodes, destroying and melting objects and evaporating water.

8. “... A red-cherry spot is visible on the forehead, and a thunderous electrical force came out of it from the legs to the boards. The legs and toes are blue, the shoe is torn, not burnt ... ". This is how the great Russian scientist Mikhail Vasilievich Lomonosov described the death of his colleague and friend Richman. He was also worried “that this case should not be interpreted against the increments of the sciences,” and he was right in his fears: in Russia, research on electricity was temporarily banned.

9. In 2010, Austrian scientists Josef Pier and Alexander Kendl from the University of Innsbruck suggested that evidence of ball lightning could be interpreted as a manifestation of phosphenes, that is, visual sensations without exposing the eye to light. Their calculations show that magnetic fields certain lightning with repetitive discharges induce electric fields in the neurons of the visual cortex. Thus, fireballs are hallucinations.
The theory was published in the scientific journal Physics Letters A. Now, supporters of the existence of ball lightning must register ball lightning with scientific equipment, and thus refute the theory of Austrian scientists.

10. In 1761, ball lightning entered the church of the Vienna Academic College, tore off the gilding from the eaves of the altar column and laid it on a silver spit. People have a much harder time: at best, ball lightning will burn. But it can also kill - like Georg Richmann. Here's your hallucination!

…A barrier with a spherical surface can appear between matter and antimatter. Powerful gamma radiation will inflate this ball from the inside, and prevent the penetration of matter to the alien antimatter, and then we will see a glowing pulsating ball that will soar above the Earth. This view appears to have been confirmed. Two British scientists methodically inspected the sky with gamma-ray detectors. And registered four times an abnormally high level of gamma radiation in the expected energy region.

How ball lightning is formed

How many antimatter meteorites are needed to provide the frequency with which fireballs are observed? It turned out that only one hundred billionth of the total amount of meteorite material falling on Earth is enough for this. This is the result of this unexpected work. Of course, the explanation of scientists is far from final and requires verification. But does it have anything to do with ball lightning?

No! - answers another scientist and declares that ball lightning does not exist at all. That luminous ball that we see is just an illusion of our vision. In his laboratory, with flash lamps, he imitated lightning flashes with the same frequency with which they usually follow during a thunderstorm, and everyone present was surprised to “saw” how strange luminous balls smoothly fly through the air ...

There are many hypotheses, but they have one common approach. Ball lightning is considered as a separate, isolated something that lives independently.

At the end of the century before last, the French scientist Gaston Plante and the Russian scientist N. A. Gezehus proposed and developed the fundamental idea that ball lightning is a system that is energetically powered by an external source. They believed that the luminous ball was connected with clouds - an invisible column of electrified air. But then, in the century before last, they could not develop and substantiate this hypothesis, and it disappeared under a pile of others, in which ball lightning was considered as a separate mysterious object. And now ideas that are ahead of their time come to life on a new basis.

What does ball lightning look like? Like that. This picture must have been taken by accident. Thunderstorm, blinding branches of lightning, stretching to the Earth. And the ball, rapidly flying down. A jerk, an instant stop, the ball rushes about, then again a jerk down to the Earth, again a stop, a chaotic rapid movement to the sides ... Here is the Earth. And a powerful explosion - discharge. It is clearly visible in the photo. Unique photo, the only one of its kind - the flight of ball lightning to the Earth from the cloud.

But near the Earth, ball lightning may not explode immediately. A small ball quite often likes to travel low at first, along the surface, and here its movement is also restless. Rapid jerks to the sides, a flash, then a smooth, quiet flight, again a flash and throwing ... But the speed of the Earth is much less than when flying from a black sky. Now flashes of ball lightning are almost indistinguishable. During the time between them, the ball barely manages to cover half of its radius. And the flashes merge together, into one flicker with a frequency of 10 to 100 hertz.

Here ball lightning descends to the Earth itself and, without touching it, bounces off something invisible, like an athlete from a trampoline. Having jumped up, the fireball descends again and bounces off the trampoline layer again. So the fireball jumps over the Earth, striking the imagination of everyone who manages to see it. Here, once at the bridges over the river, he moves along them, like a fabulous Kolobok, who ran away from his grandfather and grandmother. Kolobok runs along the walkways and, as if afraid of falling into the water and drowning, moves not straight, but along the curved walkways, following their turns. Gingerbread Man runs, singing his favorite song for some reason in a whisper: “I left my grandfather, I left my grandmother ...”, and in the distance only “shhh” is heard, and eyewitnesses vouch only for the fact that they managed to hear the hissing sound of Kolobok - ball lightning.

Kolobok is modern, he is a radio amateur and not only sings his song, but also broadcasts it on the radio on long waves. Turn on the receiver, and in the range from about a thousand to 10 thousand meters you will hear the same hissing call signs ... "I am Kolobok ..." with the same acoustic frequency of 10-100 hertz, which can be heard directly by the ear.

A strong gust of wind blew our electric Kolobok off the bridges, and it flew across the river and the field and ended up in the yard wooden house. Seeing a barrel of water, he climbed into it and ... spread over the water. Now he is not Kolobok, but a pancake, but he does not fry, but fries himself, or rather, cooks. The water in the barrel began to heat up and boil. Having completed his work, evaporating all the water. Gingerbread man again shrunk into a ball and flew around the yard, flew through the window into the hut. He flew past an electric light bulb - it flared up brightly and immediately burned out. Spinning around in the room, he flew up to the window and, having melted a small hole in the glass, slipped out and flew into the forest. There he paused for a moment near a large tree. The masquerade is over.

An electric long spark jumps out of ball lightning, which rushes to the nearest electrically conductive surface - the wet bark of a nearby tree. A powerful explosion deafens everything around. A formidable force awakened in Kolobok. Weakly luminous ball lightning turned into a powerful linear lightning that split the trunk of the secular one, and reminded people of the unbridled forces of nature raging during a thunderstorm.

When switching from a slow mode to a fast one, the process becomes explosive - ball lightning turns into a linear one. The reverse transition of linear lightning into ball lightning is also possible; In some mysterious, or perhaps accidental way, this transition was managed by the talented physicist Richman, a contemporary and friend of Lomonosov. He paid for his luck with his life: the fireball he received killed its creator.

Ball lightning and the invisible atmospheric charge path connecting it with the cloud are in a special state of "elma". Elma, unlike plasma - low-temperature electrified air - is stable, cools down and spreads very slowly. This is due to the properties of the boundary layer between the elm and ordinary air. Here the charges exist in the form of negative ions, bulky and inactive. Calculations show that elms spread in as much as 6.5 minutes, and they are replenished regularly every thirtieth of a second. It is through such a time interval that an electromagnetic pulse passes in the discharge path, replenishing Kolobok with energy.

The electric field in ball lightning is close in magnitude to the level of breakdown in a dielectric, whose name is air. In such a field, the optical levels of atoms are excited, which is why ball lightning glows. In theory, weak, non-luminous, and hence invisible ball lightning should be more frequent.

The process in the atmosphere develops in the mode of ball or linear lightning, depending on the specific conditions in the path. There is nothing incredible, rare in this duality. Consider ordinary combustion. It is possible in the regime of slow flame propagation, which does not exclude the regime of a rapidly moving detonation wave.

What is ball lightning made of?

The hissing of ball lightning is caused by bursts of electromagnetic activity. These flashes follow with a frequency of about 30 hertz. The hearing threshold of the human ear is 16 hertz.

In exceptional cases, for example, under artificial conditions, an electrical breakdown can occur inside ball lightning. And then plasma appears in it! In this case, a lot of energy is released, artificial ball lightning can shine brighter than the Sun. But usually the power of ball lightning is relatively small - it is in the Elma state. Apparently, the transition of artificial ball lightning from the Elma state to the plasma state is possible in principle.

Artificial ball lightning

In the Arctic, it will be possible to light an artificial one. From the 200-meter tower, a 300-meter charge path of artificial ball lightning rises up. Ball lightning switches to plasma mode and shines brightly from a height of half a kilometer above the city.

The Electric Gingerbread Man, which has avoided close acquaintance with scientists for so many years, will not leave: sooner or later it will be tamed, and it will learn to benefit people.

Laboratory ball lightning

Ball lightning (etherodynamics)- this is a toroidal helical vortex of weakly compressed ether, separated by a boundary layer of ether from the surrounding ether. The energy of ball lightning is the energy of ether flows in the lightning body.

Ball lightning (popular etherodynamics)- this is a single brightly luminous relatively stable small mass that is observed in the atmosphere, floating in the air and moving together with air currents, containing great energy in its body, disappearing quietly or with great noise like an explosion and leaving no material traces after its disappearance, except for those the destruction she's caused. Typically, the occurrence of ball lightning is associated with thunderstorms and natural linear lightning. But this is optional.

Meaning from various sources

Ball lightning (wikipedia)- a rare natural phenomenon that looks like a luminous and floating formation in the air. A unified physical theory of the occurrence and course of this phenomenon has not yet been presented, there are also scientific theories that reduce the phenomenon to hallucinations. There are many hypotheses that explain the phenomenon, but none of them has received absolute recognition in the academic environment. Under laboratory conditions, similar but short-term phenomena have been obtained in several different ways, so the question of the nature of ball lightning remains open. As of the beginning of the 21st century, not a single experimental installation has been created on which this natural phenomenon would be artificially reproduced in accordance with the descriptions of eyewitnesses of the observation of ball lightning.
It is widely believed that ball lightning is a phenomenon of electrical origin, of natural nature, that is, it is a special type of lightning that exists for a long time and has the shape of a ball that can move along an unpredictable, sometimes surprising trajectory for eyewitnesses.

Notable cases

Known occurrences of ball lightning:

The case when ball lightning jumps out of nowhere from an ordinary socket, from a magnetic starter mounted on a lathe.
The case of the sudden appearance of ball lightning on the wing of a flying aircraft and steadily moving along the wing from its end to the fuselage. The ability of ball lightning to stick to metals is explained by the presence of a velocity gradient in the ether flows near the metal and, as a result, a decrease in the ether pressure between the lightning body and the metal. The lifting force of lightning is explained by the same. Aether flows excite gas molecules, which stop glowing as soon as they leave the lightning body.
A sad case of the appearance of ball lightning in broad daylight and in calm clear weather in the mountains at high altitude. The fireball, which appeared from nowhere, attacked the people sleeping in the tent, and began to "bite" them, causing significant burns. She lifted the woolen blanket, spreading a bluish fire over it, and then, as expected, disappeared without leaving a trace.

Hypotheses

A significant number of hypotheses about the nature and structure of ball lightning have been created, such as:

a luminous cloud of air ions fed from outside;
plasma and chemical theories;
cluster hypotheses (lightning consists of clusters - hydration shells of ions)
and even the suggestion that ball lightning is composed of antimatter and controlled by extraterrestrial civilizations.

A common drawback of all such theories, hypotheses and models of ball lightning is that they do not explain all of its properties in the aggregate.

Properties of ball lightning

Properties Based on Behavioral Observations

The size of stable ball lightning ranges from units to tens of centimeters.
The shape is spherical or pear-shaped, but sometimes vague, according to the shape of the adjacent object.
Bright luminosity visible during the daytime.
High energy content - 10 3 -10 7 J (once ball lightning, climbing into a barrel of water, evaporated 70 kg of water).
The specific gravity, which practically coincides with the specific mass of air in the area of appearance (ball lightning floats freely in the air at any height);
The ability to stick to metal objects.
The ability to penetrate a dielectric, in particular through glass.
The ability to deform and penetrate into rooms through small openings such as keyholes, as well as through walls, along wire lines, etc.
The ability to explode spontaneously or on contact with an object.
The ability to lift and move various objects.

Properties based on the ether vortex model

Vortex closed motion - the only way to localize energy in a gaseous medium. In this case, the kinetic energy of rotation of the walls of the vortex. Since the vortex exists, balancing the external pressure, it will be compressed by the medium, increasing the speed of rotation. This will continue until centrifugal force acting on the chambers will not be equal to the force of the external pressure of the ether. Thus, we obtain a critically compacted vortex with a high energy density.
The toroidal movement is very stable under critical compaction. At high rotation speeds, a surface layer is formed, in which the viscosity decreases sharply. This phenomenon acts as a bearing, reducing losses during rotation of the vortex.
Since, as we believe, both BL and electromagnetic phenomena have an etherodynamic nature, the presence of electromagnetic properties in ball lightning is not surprising. Moreover, toroidal vortices have their own magnetic moment and an axis of symmetry. This leads to the fact that CMMs are guided by external fields, that is, by vortex tubes, and move along them, as if on rails (with a sufficient field strength).
Since ether particles have dimensions ten orders of magnitude smaller than particles of matter, macroscopic ether vortices can easily pass through material objects, just like the wind through a sparse forest. In this case, however, strong eddy currents will be induced in the substances (depending on the composition), which, together with other phenomena, will lead to strong heat release.
Strong electric and magnetic fields of the ethereal vortex ionize gas molecules, bringing gases into the state of plasma. Synthesis of elements is also possible due to the presence of vortex motions.
Due to strong electromagnetic fields, ball lightning induces eddy currents in metals, which can lead to energy depletion and dissolution. But in most cases, with a spontaneous violation of the integrity of the vortex, the energy accumulated in it will be released in the form of electromagnetic radiation (the macroscopic toroid will collapse and its rotational energy will go into many microscopic toroids-particles and vortex lanes-photons).

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What causes ball lightning. Lightning ball, but different. Near-scientific theories about ball lightning

How ball lightning occurs

Observation history

Historical evidence

Artificial reproduction of the phenomenon

Review of approaches for artificial reproduction of ball lightning

List of artificially reproduced ball lightning claims

Theoretical explanations of the phenomenon

Classification of theories

Review of existing theories

see also

Literature

Books and reports on ball lightning

Articles in magazines

Links

Ball lightning in fiction

Notes

How ball lightning is formed

What is ball lightning made of?

Artificial ball lightning

Meaning from various sources

Notable cases

Hypotheses

Properties of ball lightning

Properties Based on Behavioral Observations

Properties based on the ether vortex model

✅Reader comments

Anonymous reviews

How ball lightning occurs

Observation history

Historical evidence

Artificial reproduction of the phenomenon

Review of approaches for artificial reproduction of ball lightning

List of artificially reproduced ball lightning claims

Theoretical explanations of the phenomenon

Classification of theories

Review of existing theories

see also

Literature

Books and reports on ball lightning

Articles in magazines

Links

Ball lightning in fiction

Notes

How ball lightning is formed

What is ball lightning made of?

Artificial ball lightning

Meaning from various sources

Notable cases

Hypotheses

Properties of ball lightning

Properties Based on Behavioral Observations

Properties based on the ether vortex model

✅Reader comments

Anonymous reviews

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