Ball lightning

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For other uses, see Ball lightning (disambiguation).

Ball lightning reportedly takes the form of a short-lived, glowing, floating object often the size and  shape of a basketball, but it  can also be golf ball sized or  smaller. it  is sometimes associated with thunderstorms, but unlike lightning flashes arcing between two points, which last a small fraction of a second, ball lightning reportedly lasts many seconds. There have  been some reports of production of a similar phenomenon in the laboratory, but some still disagree on whether it  is the same phenomenon.

Contents 1 Reports 1.1 Historical and  fictional accounts 2 Laboratory experiments 3 Analysis 4 Esoteric explanations 5 Quotations 6 See also 7 Further reading 8 References 9 External links

[edit] Reports

Ball lightning discharges were once thought to be extremely rare occurrences, but recent research shows that a few percent of the US population have  been witnesses.^[1] Surveys have  been taken of eyewitness accounts by at least 3000 people.^{[citation needed]}

Ball lightning is  photographed very rarely, and  details of witness accounts can vary widely. Many of the properties observed in ball lightning accounts conflict with each other, and  it is  very possible that several different phenomena are  being incorrectly grouped together. it  is also possible that some photos are  fakes.

The discharges reportedly appear during thunderstorms, sometimes issuing from a lightning flash, but large numbers of encounters reportedly occur during good weather with no storms within hundreds of miles.

Ball lightning reportedly tends to float (or hover) in the air and  take on a ball-like appearance. Its shape has been described as spherical, ovoid, teardrop, or  rod-like with one dimension being much larger than the others. The longest dimension reported is  between fifteen and  forty centimeters. Many are  red to yellow in colour, sometimes transparent, and  some contain radial filaments or  sparks. Other colours, such as blue or  white occur as well.

Sometimes the discharge is  described as being attracted to a certain object, and  sometimes as moving randomly. After several seconds the discharge reportedly leaves, disperses, is  absorbed into something, or, rarely, vanishes in an  explosion.

Pilots in World War II described an  unusual phenomenon for which ball lightning has been suggested as an  explanation. The pilots saw small balls of light "escorting" bombers, flying alongside their wingtips. Pilots of the time referred to the phenomenon as "foo fighters," initially believing that the lights were from enemy planes. However there are  other theories as to the identity of the foo fighters.

Other accounts place ball lightning as appearing over a kitchen stove or  wandering down the aisle of an  airliner^[2]. One report described ball lightning following and  engulfing a car, causing the electrical supply to overload and  fail.^{[citation needed]}

[ and  fictional accounts">edit] Historical and  fictional accounts

One of the earliest reported, and  most destructive, occurrences is  said to have  taken place during The Great Thunderstorm at Widecombe-in-the-Moor, Devon, in England, on October 21, 1638. Four people died and  around 60 were injured when what appeared to have  been ball lightning struck a church.^{[citation needed]}

Another reference to ball lightning appears in a children's book set in the 1800s by Laura Ingalls Wilder^[3]. The books are  considered historical fiction, but the author always insisted they were descriptive of actual events in her life. In Wilder's description, three separate balls of lightning appear during a winter blizzard near a cast iron stove in the family's kitchen. They are  described as appearing near the stovepipe, then rolling across the floor, only to disappear as the mother chases them with a willow-branch broom.^[4]

M. l'abbé de Tressan in, Mythology compared with history: or, the fables of the ancients elucidated from historical records,

...during a storm which endangered the ship Argo, fires were seen to play round the heads of the Tyndarides, and  the instant after the storm ceased. From that time, those fires which frequently appear on the surface of the ocean were called the fire of Castor and  Pollux. When two were seen at the same time, it  announced the return of calm, when only one, it  was the presage of a dreadful storm. This species of fire is  frequently seen by sailors, and  is a species of ignis fatuus. (page 417)

Notorious British occultist Aleister Crowley also reported witnessing what he referred to as "globular electricity" during a thunderstorm on Lake Pasquaney in New Hampshire in 1916. As related in his Confessions, he was sheltered in a small cottage when he "noticed, with what I can only describe as calm amazement, that a dazzling globe of electric fire, apparently between six and  twelve inches in diameter, was stationary about six inches 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."^[5]

A famous anecdote from 1753 depicts ball lightning as having violent potential. Professor Georg Richmann, of Saint Petersburg, Russia created a kite flying apparatus similar to that built by Benjamin Franklin a year earlier. He was attending a meeting of the Academy of Sciences, when he heard thunder. The Professor ran home with his engraver to capture the event for posterity. While the experiment was underway, ball lightning appeared, collided with Richmann's head and  killed him, leaving a red spot. His shoes were blown open, parts of his clothes singed, the engraver knocked out; the doorframe of the room was split, and  the door itself torn off its hinges.^[6][7]

Ball lightning also occurs in The Seven Crystal Balls, one of the books in The Adventures of Tintin series.

In Stephen King's novella The Body, the narrator and  his friends encounter this phenomenon traveling down railroad tracks just outside the fictional town of Castle Rock.

A ball lightning named Skip makes a brief appearance as a character in Thomas Pynchon's novel Against the Day.

[edit] Laboratory experiments

Many attempts have  been made over the years to produce ball lightning in the laboratory, but it  is easy to mistake other phenomena for ball lightning. Most prominent among these are  glowing spheres produced by high-energy arcs between metal electrodes. Such arcs often expel small droplets of molten metal that are  heated to extremely high temperatures. Because of their high heat content, these droplets will continue to glow quite brightly for several seconds after landing on a floor or  other surface, and  their odd physical characteristics can cause them to roll, still glowing brightly, for some distance after landing. They thus mimic the most common description of ball lightning before cooling down into a small speck of metallic dust. The most familiar instance of these glowing spheres is  the "weld spatter" usually seen during arc welding operations. The spheres can also be produced when a switch carrying very large electric currents is  operated improperly, or  during certain grinding or  other machining operations.

Some laboratory experiments claim to have  produced ball lightning, but there is  no rigorous confirmation that the phenomenon reproduced is  related to the natural one. The natural occurrences are, by their nature, difficult to document accurately. Consequently, many scientists continue to dispute the existence of ball lightning as a distinct physical phenomenon.^[8] In one such occurrence, support staff at the Cavendish Laboratory, Cambridge reported ball lightning during a thunderstorm; their account was written up without speculation by Brian Pippard, the Head of Department, in the journal Nature.^[9]

In February 2006, scientists at Tel Aviv University claimed to have  produced ball lightning in the lab using a microwave drill and  ceramic substrate.^[10]. more  recently (June, 2006) researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics successfully recreated the phenomenon using a relatively simple water tank experiment. The experiment involves two electrodes placed in a small tank of salt water, with one electrode covered by a clay tube. A large current of over 60 amps was then run through the water for 150 milliseconds, vaporizing water inside the clay tube and  causing a ball of plasma to appear above the tank for 0.3 seconds. Although the plasma glows brightly it  was found to be quite cold, much like a neon tube ^[11].

[edit] Analysis

An early attempt to explain ball lightning was recorded by Nikola Tesla in 1904. ^[12]

Difficult features of the lightning include its persistence and  its near-neutral buoyancy in air. A popular hypothesis is  that ball lightning is  a highly ionized plasma contained by self-generated magnetic fields: a plasmoid.^{[citation needed]} This hypothesis is  not initially credible. If the gas is  highly ionized, and  if it  is near thermodynamic equilibrium, then it  must be very hot. Since it  must be in pressure equilibrium with the surrounding air, it  will be much lighter and  hence float up rapidly. Magnetic fields, if present, might provide the plasmoid's coherence, but will not reduce this buoyancy. In addition, a hot plasma cannot persist for long because of recombination and  heat conduction.

There may, however, be some novel form of plasma for which the above arguments do not fully apply. For example, a plasma may be composed of negative and  positive ions, rather than electrons and  positive ions. In that case, the recombination may be rather slow even at ambient temperature. One such theory involves positively charged hydrogen and  negatively charged nitrites (NO₂^–) and  nitrates (NO₃^–). In this theory, the role of the ions as seeds for the condensation of water droplets is  important.^{[citation needed]}

A proposed explanation^{[verification needed]} for the numerous colours reported for ball lightning is  the following known gas phase chemoluminescent reaction:

NO+O₃ → NO₂[◊]+ O₂

Broadband visible light is  emitted from the NO₂ as it  reverts to a lower energy state. This explanation is  supported by the numerous witness accounts of the presence of ozone.

Some researchers suggest that ball lightning has a more  diverse range of properties than previously thought (e.g. Singer, 1971). Japanese investigators (e.g. Ofuruton et al) report that Japanese ball lightning can occur in fine weather and  be unconnected with lightning. The diameter is  said to be typically 20-30 cm but sometimes even larger up to a few meters. Ball lightning can split and  recombine and  can exhibit large mechanical energy like carving trenches (e.g. Fitzgerald 1978) and  holes into the ground. Ball lightning is  also said to have  an odd motion such as looping and  the appearance of bouncing along the ground. Other suggestions include:

• that ball lightning may represent the missing science of burning natural vortices. This theory by Coleman was published in Weather and  in the 2006 Journal of Scientific Exploration 20,2,215-238.
• that some stored chemical energy is  slowly being released. see Abrahamson, J. and  J. Dinniss (2000). Ball lightning caused by oxidation of nanoparticle networks from normal lightning strikes on soil. Nature 403:519-521.
• that ball lightning is  some form of induction phenomenon (electromagnetic knot), ball lightning having allegedly been witnessed inside metal aircraft.^[4]
• that the lightning is  a Hill's vortex, like a smoke ring.^[13]
• that it  is an  optical illusion similar to the aftereffect of a photographer's flash directed into a person's eyes.^{[14][citation needed]}
• There is  also a theory that the phenomena called "poltergeists" and  "human combustions" might be subdivisions of ball lightning phenomena http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn1720

[edit] Esoteric explanations

Ball lighting has been connected to reports of several supernatural phenomena, ranging from will o' the wisps to UFOs. Some people believe the ball lightning phenomena are  ghosts or  spirits. References can be seen in the will o' the wisp and  other spirits that take the guise of orbs of light. Some UFO skeptics have  suggested that many apparent close encounters are  actually observations of ball lightning. UFO enthusiasts report seeing ball lightning often at crop circle sites and  believe them to be some kind of intelligence or  come from some kind of intelligence while not denying that it  is indeed ball lightning.

Another exotic explanation that has been offered for ball lightning is  that it  is the passage of microscopic primordial black holes through the Earth's atmosphere. No such tiny black holes have  ever been positively detected, and  it is  uncertain whether they would have  the physical properties described by ball lightning if they did in fact exist and  in great enough quantity to account for ball lightning reports. This explanation also would not account for their alleged co-occurrence with electrical storms.

Among the ancients of Japanese mythology, there is  a myth that ball lightning is  the wrath of the thunder god, Raijin from Japanese mythology

In Basque mythology ball lightning were believed to be either main deity, Mari or  Sugaar, travelling from one mountain to another.

[edit] Quotations

"...Our conclusion is  that these fireballs are  primarily RF in origin, and  not nuclear phenomena..." - Corum

"...No theory of ball lightning exists which can account for both the degree of mobility that the ball exhibits and  for the fact that it  does not rise...." - Talbot

[edit] See also

• St. Elmo's fire
• Naga fireballs
• Hessdalen light
• Spooklight
• Will o' the wisp
• Kiril Chukanov
• Foo fighter
• Red sprite

[edit] Further reading

• Barry, James Dale (1980). Ball Lightning and  Bead Lightning. New York: Plenum Press.
• Cade, Cecil Maxwell, Delphine Davis (1969). The Taming of the Thunderbolts. New York: Abelard-Schuman Limited.
• Coleman, Peter F. (2004). Great Balls of Fire—A Unified Theory of Ball Lightning, UFOs, Tunguska and  other Anomalous Lights. Christchurch, NZ: Fireshine Press.
• Golde, R. H. (1977). Lightning. Bristol: John Wright and  Sons Limited.
• Golde, R. H. (1977). Lightning Volume 1 Physics of Lightning. Academic Press.
• Singer, Stanley (1971). The Nature of Ball Lightning. New York: Plenum Press.
• Stenhoff, Mark (1999). Ball Lightning, an  Unsolved Problem in Atmospheric Physics. New York, Boston, Dordrecht, London, Moscow: Kluwer Academic/Plenum Publishers.
• Uman, Martin A. (1984). Lightning. Dover Publications.
• Viemeister, Peter E. (1972). The Lightning Book. Cambridge: MIT Press.

[edit] References

1. ^ "At one time BL was thought to be extremely rare, but this was because most BL eyewitnesses feared ridicule and  wouldn't come forward. In reality, five percent of the population has seen BL close up." [1]
2. ^ "My husband was on a night flight years ago where he swears a "fireball" streaked down the aisle." [2]
3. ^ Wilder, Laura Ingalls (1937). On the Banks of Plum Creek. Harper Trophy.
4. ^ ^{a b} Getline, Meryl. "Playing with (St. Elmo's) fire", USA Today, 2005-10-17.
5. ^ Crowley, Aleister (1989-12-05). “Chp. 83”, The Confessions of Aleister Crowley: an  Autobiography. Penguin. ISBN 0140191895.
6. ^ Clarke, Ronald W. (1983). Benjamin Franklin, A Biography. Random House, 87.
7. ^ "Frenchman Thomas Francois D'Alibard used a 50-foot long vertical rod to draw down the "electric fluid" of the lightning in Paris on May 10, 1752. One week later, M. Delor repeated the experiment in Paris, followed in July by an  Englishman, John Canton. But one unfortunate physicist did not fare so well. Georg Wilhelm Reichmann attempted to reproduce the experiment, according to Franklin's instructions, standing inside a room. A glowing ball of charge traveled down the string, jumped to his forehead and  killed him instantly.[3]
8. ^ Singer, Stanley (2002). "Ball lightning: the scientific effort". Phil. Trans. R. Soc. London v360: 5-9.
9. ^ Pippard, A. B. (1982). "Ball of Fire?". Nature v298: 702.
10. ^ "Great balls of lightning", Physics Web, 2006-02-09.
11. ^ Max Planck Institute, Berlin, 7 June 2006
12. ^ Tesla, Nikola (1904-03-05). "The Transmission of Electrical Energy Without Wires". Electrical World and  Engineer.
13. ^ "Ball lightning explained", Australian Broadcasting Corporation, 2002-04-04.
14. ^ This suggestion would tend to account for the reports of "ball lightning" persisting for various lengths of time, and  of appearing to float within a room or  other dwelling, etc. The commonly shared modern experience of such flashes directly related to flash-photographs, and  present-day research of optical perception and  neuro-ophthalmology, provides yet another possibility to add to the many hypotheses that have  historically been proposed.

[edit] External links

• Bergström, Arne. Electrodynamic confinement -- a new field of science and  technology?. Scientor Research & Development. — the secret of ball lightning and  a new field of science and  technology
• Corum, Kenneth L.; James F.Corum. Tesla's production of electric fireballs. Corum & Associates, Inc..
• Talbot, Michel T.. Ball Lightning : Rare Atmospheric Phenomena (RAP).
• Beaty, Bill. Ball Lightning Page. and  Eyewitness reports. — Various articles, experiments, and  information on Ball lightning
• Hochwald, Hans. 'Ball Lightning' produced using a high voltage arc and  carbon. — Alternative "toaster" Microwave Experiments
• Darling, David. Ball lightning. The Encyclopedia of Astrobiology, Astronomy, and  Spaceflight..
• Shelton, J. D. (2004-01-13). Eddy Current Model of Ball Lightning.
• Does ball lightning really exist?. Straight Dope.
• Ball lightning properties.
• Ball Lightning as a Stable Toroid (pdf).
• The Physical Theory of Ball Lightning (pdf).
• Sceptic's Dictionary information on ball lightning, with further links.