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2nd Ball Lightning Discussion Top of Document
sci.geo.meteorology #15740 (27 more)
From: bo964@FreeNet.Carleton.CA (Michel T. Talbot)
Subject: Re: Ball Lightning - new info
Organization: The National Capital FreeNet
Date: Sat Apr 22 06:56:42 EDT 1995
Lines: 244

Ball Lightning #1

Ball lightning (boules de feu or foudre spherique; Kugeblitz) is the name given to the mobile luminous spheres which have been observed during thunderstorms. A typical ball lightning is about the size of an orange or a grapefruit and has a lifetime of a few seconds. Compilations of eye-witness reports of ball lightning have been published by Brand(1923), Rodewald(1954), Dewan(1964), Silberg(1965), McNally(1966) and Rayle(1967) among others. Visual sightings are often accompanied by sound, odor, and permanent material damage, and hence it would appear difficult to deny the reality of the phenomenon [as Humphreys(1936) has done]. In a letter to the editor of the London Daily Mail, Morris(1936) described an unusual incident in which a ball lightning caused a tub of water to boil:

During a thunderstorm I saw a large, red hot ball come down from the sky. It struck our house, cut the telephone wire, burnt the window frame,and then buried itself in a tub of water which was underneath. The water boiled for some minutes afterwards, but when it was cool enough for me to search I could find nothing in it."

Photographs purported to be of ball lightning have been published by Jensen(1933), Kuhn(1951), Wolf(1956), Davidov(1958), Jennings(1962), and Muller-Hillebrand(1963). A phenomenon very similar to, if not identical with, ball lightning has been reported to occur in submarines due to discharge of a current about 150,000 amp direct current from a 260-volt source across a circuit breaker(Silberg, 1962). In addition a number of reports were received of ball-lightning-like phenomena being initiated accidentally in high-power electrical equipment.

Ball lightning and St. Elmo's fire are sometimes confused. St. Elmo's fire is a corona discharge from a pointed conducting object in a strong electric field. Like ball lightning, St. Elmo's fire may assume a spherical shape. Unlike ball lightning, St. Elmo's fire must remain attached to a conductor, although it may exhibit some motion along the conductor. Further, St. Elmo's fire can have a lifetime much greater than the lifetime of the usual ball lightning.

Top of Document

From the many published ball lightning observations, it is possible to compile a list of:

Ball Lightning Characteristics

Occurrence
Most observations of ball lightning are made during thunderstorm activity. Most, but not all, of thunderstorm-related ball lightning appear almost simultaneously with a cloud-to-ground lightning discharge. These ball lightnings appear within a few meters of the ground. Sometimes ball lightnings are reported to occur near the ground in the absence of a lightning discharge. Ball lightnings have also been observed to hang in mid-air far above the ground and have been observed falling from a cloud towards the ground.
Appearance
Ball lightnings are generally spherical, although other shapes have been reported they are usually 0.1-0.2m in diameter, with reported diameters ranging from 0.01-1.00m. Ball lightnings come in various colors, the most common colors being red, orange, and yellow. Ball lightning are generally not exceptionally bright, but can be seen clearly in daylight. They are usually reported to maintain a relatively constant brightness and size during their lifetimes, although ball lightnings which change in brightness and size are not uncommon.
Lifetime
Ball lightnings generally have a lifetime of less than 5 seconds. A small fraction of reports indicate a lifetime of over a minute.
Motion
Ball lightning usually move horizontally at a velocity of a few meters per second. They may also remain motionless in mid-air or may descend from a cloud towards the ground. They do not often rise, as would be the case if they were spheres of hot air at atmospheric pressure in the presence of only a gravitational force. Many reports describe ball lightning which appear to spin or rotate as they move. Ball lightnings are sometimes reported to bounce off solid objects, typically the ground.
Heat, sound and odor
Rarely do observers of ball lightning report the sensation of heat. However, accounts of ball lightning which burned barns and melted wires do exist. One report found in McNally (1966) described a ball lightning which hit a pond of water with a sound "as if putting a red hot piece of iron into the water." Sometimes ball lightnings are reported to emit a hissing sound. Many observers report a distinctive odor accompanying ball lightning. The odor is usually described as sharp and repugnant, resembling ozone, burning sulphur, or nitric oxide.
Attraction to objects and enclosures
Ball lightnings are often reported to be attracted to metallic objects such as wire fences or telephone lines. When attached to metallic objects, they generally move along those objects. Some or all these observations may refer to a type of St. Elmo's fire. Ball lightnings often enter houses through screens or chimneys. Sometimes they are reported to enter houses through glass window panes. They are also reported to originate within buildings, on occasion from telephones. Ball lightnings can exist in an all-metal enclosure such as the interior of an airplane (Uman, 1968).
Demise
Ball lightnings decay in one of two modes, either silently or explosively. The explosive decay takes place rapidly and is accompanied by a loud noise. The silent decay can take place either rapidly or slowly. After the ball has decayed, it is sometimes reported that a mist or residue remains. Occasionally a ball lightning has been observed to break up into two or more smaller ball lightnings.
Types
There may be more than one type of ball lightning. For example, the ball lightning that attaches to conductors may be different from the free-floating ball lightning; and the ball lightning that appears near ground may be different from the ball lightning that hangs high in the air or the ball lightning that falls out of a cloud.
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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. Thus, despite the numerous theoretical models proposed for the phenomenon, the mechanisms which cause the ball lighting remain unknown. All ball lightning theories fall into one of two general classes:

Ball Lightning Theories

Internally powered models

I1
The ball lightning is gas or air behaving in a "unusual" way. It has been suggested that the ball lightning is slowly burning gas, is the radiation from long-lived metastable states of air particles or from particles which absorb energy from the metastables, is due to chemical reactions involving dust, soots, etc., and so on.

I2
Ball lightning is a sphere of heated air at atmospheric pressure. Uman and Lowke (1968) have calculated the temporal and spatial characteristics of a sphere of hot air. It was found that for a sphere of about 0.2m in diameter, the cooling rate was about 100K/sec in the temperature range near 3000K and that the sphere maintained an essentially constant radius during the cooling process. Unfortunately, the relatively small cooling rate does not lead to a relatively constant ball brightness.

I3
Ball lightning is a very high density plasma (with electron density 25 -3 of 10 m ) which exhibits quantum mechanical properties characteristic of the solid state (Neugebauer, 1937)

I4
Ball lightning is due to one of several suggested configurations of closed loop current flow contained by it's own magnetic field. Finkelstein and Rubinstein(1964) have shown that plasma containment of this type is not possible under normal conditions in air.

I5
Ball lightning is due to some sort of air vortex (like a smoke ring) providing containment for luminous gases.

I6
Ball lightning is a microwave radiation field contained within a thin spherical shell of plasma (Dawson and Jones, 1968).

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Externally powered models (External Power Sources)

E1 High-frequency >100MHz EMF
Cerrillo(1943) and Kapitza(1955) proposed that focused RF energy from the thundercloud could create and maintain a ball lightning. The high electric fields necessary to effect this mechanism have never been observed in thunderstorms.

E2 Steady current flow from cloud to ground
Finklestein and Rubinstein(1964) and Uman and Helstrom(1966) have suggested that a steady current flowing from cloud to ground would contract in cross section in a region of high conductivity (the ball) and that the increased energy input due to the constriction of current could maintain the ball. This type of theory cannot account for the existence of ball lightning inside structures, particularly inside metal structures.

E3 Focused Cosmic Ray Particles?
Arabadzhi(1957) has suggested that radioactive cosmic-ray particles could be focused by the electric fields of the thunderstorm so that they would create an air discharge at one point in space.

Michel T. Talbot
bo964@freenet.carleton.ca
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2nd Ball Lightning Discussion

This is your lucky day!

From: pmk@promethe.UUCP
Subject: Re: Ball Lightning - new info
Newsgroups: sci.geo.meteorology

In article bo964@FreeNet.Carleton.CA (Michel T. Talbot) writes:

>Ball lightning (boules de feu or foudre spherique; Kugeblitz) is the
>name given to the mobile luminous spheres which have been observed
>during thunderstorms. A typical ball lightning is about the size of an
>orange or a grapefruit and has a lifetime of a few seconds. Compilations
>of eye-witness reports of ball lightning have been published by
>Brand(1923), Rodewald(1954), Dewan(1964), Silberg(1965), McNally(1966)
>and Rayle(1967) among others. Visual sightings are often accompanied by
>sound, odor, and permanent material damage, and hence it would appear
>difficult to deny the reality of the phenomenon [as Humphreys(1936) has
>done]. In a letter to the editor of the London Daily Mail, Morris(1936)
>described an unusual incident in which a ball lightning caused a tub of
>water to boil

This size is more typical of more rare southern BLs. Northern midwestern ones tend to be soccer or basketball sized. However, it is not rare for ball lightning size distributions, to find the occasional meter to meter and a half sized ones, which have produced spectacular physical damage.

> During a thunderstorm I saw a large, red hot ball come down from the
> sky. It struck our house, cut the telephone wire, burnt the window
> frame,and then buried itself in a tub of water which was underneath.
> The water boiled for some minutes afterwards, but when it was cool
> enough for me to search I could find nothing in it."

I don't think it was red "hot", rather it the light from it's core was well filtered by a layered onion skin of a radial plasma regimes in a kind of outer covering or Mantle. That is in non-mag-line-tied cases outer most layer produces ozone and nitrous oxides which sticks (and filters out the blues and greens). This can then form nitrogen pentoxide which acts to filter the light further by band-passing reds.

>Photographs purported to be of ball lightning have been published by
>Jensen(1933), Kuhn(1951), Wolf(1956), Davidov(1958), Jennings(1962), and
>Muller-Hillebrand(1963).

Probably the best photo is by Snidermann and pulblished by Norinder. (see Singer Although we have color pictures at a www site of the ones we produced artifically in the atmosphere. Current was huge 200kA+, but the energy input was small 4kj.

>A phenomenon very similar to, if not identical
>with, ball lightning has been reported to occur in submarines due to
>discharge of a current about 150,000 amp direct current from a 260-volt
>source across a circuit breaker(Silberg, 1962). In addition a number of
>reports were received of ball-lightning-like phenomena being initiated
>accidentally in high-power electrical equipment.

There are magnetics involved which no one except J. Tuck (1970) reproduced correctly. That includes Golka and Dijkhuis.

>Ball lightning and St. Elmo's fire are sometimes confused. St. Elmo's
>fire is a corona discharge from a pointed conducting object in a strong
>electric field. Like ball lightning, St. Elmo's fire may assume a
>spherical shape. Unlike ball lightning, St. Elmo's fire must remain
>attached to a conductor, although it may exhibit some motion along the
>conductor. Further, St. Elmo's fire can have a lifetime much greater
>than the lifetime of the usual ball lightning.

Ball lightning is repelled by conductors, EXCEPT when the conductor is carrying current, or is ferromagnetic.

>From the many published ball lightning observations, it is possible to
>compile a list of:
>
>ball lightning characteristics
>------------------------------
>1. Occurrence
> Most observations of ball lightning are made during thunderstorm activity.
> Most, but not all, of thunderstorm-related ball lightning appear almost
> simultaneously with a cloud-to-ground lightning discharge. These ball
> lightnings appear within a few meters of the ground. Sometimes ball
> lightnings are reported to occur near the ground in the absence of a
> lightning discharge. Ball lightnings have also been observed to hang
> in mid-air far above the ground and have been observed falling from a
> cloud towards the ground.

Percentage Falling out of thunder clouds increases away from the geo-mag poles.

>2. Appearance
> Ball lightnings are generally spherical, although other shapes have been
> reported they are usually 0.1-0.2m in diameter, with reported diameters
> ranging from 0.01-1.00m.

There are super BLs that are formed in the high pressure of electrified volcanic dust vents. These vents sometimes errupt underwater off Japan, and BL's are seen rising from deep in the ocean and becoming airborne. There was an event where a huge 6m Ball Lightning of such type lasted 2 hours and terrorized the people of some schloss or castle ... probably some much samari type. They refer to them as Hitodama, and they are reputed to be ths souls of powerful samari or connote divinity. Japanese currency has a picture of emperor Hirohito within an oval Ball lightning that can be seen only when held up to the light. Guess it was a way of getting around MacArthur's edit about Japan not practicing any more emperor-god religo-politics.

> Ball lightnings come in various colors, the most
> common colors being red, orange, and yellow. Ball lightning are generally
> not exceptionally bright, but can be seen clearly in daylight. They are
> usually reported to maintain a relatively constant brightness and size
> during their lifetimes, although ball lightnings which change in
> brightness and size are not uncommon.

Various levels of NOx.. however, if they are line tied, the air currents can remove this stuff and they can look bluish. Sometimes they pick up redness from exploding leaves, but it is pumped out through the polar jets. (so called natural divertor -- see tokamak or spheromak ) They have artificial divertors (impurity cleaners).

>3. Lifetime
> Ball lightnings generally have a lifetime of less than 5 seconds.
> A small fraction of reports indicate a lifetime of over a minute.

As I say, life time can be long is well made and BIG.

>4. Motion
> Ball lightning usually move horizontally at a velocity of a few meters
> per second. They may also remain motionless in mid-air or may descend
> from a cloud towards the ground. They do not often rise, as would be
> the case if they were spheres of hot air at atmospheric pressure in the
> presence of only a gravitational force. Many reports describe ball
> lightning which appear to spin or rotate as they move. Ball lightnings
> are sometimes reported to bounce off solid objects, typically the ground.

They cruise with the breeze like a newspaper. If the energetics run down they overheat (turn white and bright) and WILL rise from thermal bouyancy. Spinning can be induced since they are magnetic and will trip over ferrite stones in soil, or nails in the flooring, etc.

>5. Heat, sound and odor
> Rarely do observers of ball lightning report the sensation of heat.
> However, accounts of ball lightning which burned barns and melted wires
> do exist. One report found in McNally (1966) described a ball lightning
> which hit a pond of water with a sound "as if putting a red hot piece of
> iron into the water." Sometimes ball lightnings are reported to emit a
> hissing sound. Many observers report a distinctive odor accompanying
> ball lightning. The odor is usually described as sharp and repugnant,
> resembling ozone, burning sulphur, or nitric oxide.

They have INTENSE current. The burns to life forms are from radiation. They are very conservative of energy, as long as they miss insulators with internal ferromagnetic material. The ball was probably pulled into the tub due to the iron bands or other fasteners. The boiling was just it's energy transfer to produce contact steam AND releasing of gas originally trapped as plasma.

>6. Attraction to objects and enclosures
> Ball lightnings are often reported to be attracted to metallic objects
> such as wire fences or telephone lines. When attached to metallic
> objects, they generally move along those objects.

Be careful here. Currents?? Ferromagnetic material ... attractive copper sheet without current is repulsive.

> Some or all these
> observations may refer to a type of St. Elmo's fire. Ball lightnings
> often enter houses through screens or chimneys.

Saint Elmos is usually pretty flimsy stuff, while Ball Lightning when freshly and well made, is more of a Pit bull. Don't believe me? try to punch one with an iron spike in your hand.

>Sometimes they are
> reported to enter houses through glass window panes. They are also
> reported to originate within buildings, on occasion from telephones.
> Ball lightnings can exist in an all-metal enclosure such as the interior
> of an airplane (Uman, 1968).

There is a rumor that one totally whacked every single solid state device in a supercomputer. It came out of a junction box that was covered over by plaster and paper, when lightning struck the building. One group of people were really p-o'd. Can you imagine their willingness to believe the only technician who witnessed the event??? Loony toons.

>7. Demise
> Ball lightnings decay in one of two modes, either silently or
> explosively. The explosive decay takes place rapidly and is accompanied
> by a loud noise. The silent decay can take place either rapidly or
> slowly. After the ball has decayed, it is sometimes reported that a
> mist or residue remains. Occasionally a ball lightning has been
> observed to break up into two or more smaller ball lightnings.

Explosive decay, means these things have high internal energy, and therefore, the virial theorem can't apply. The only case it can't is if the internal system has sharp (discontinous) boundaries, and it does. And ..

Yep ions do attract droplet formation on a humid (thunderstorms) day.

>8. Types
> There may be more than one type of ball lightning. For example, the
> ball lightning that attaches to conductors may be different from the
> free-floating ball lightning; and the ball lightning that appears near
> ground may be different from the ball lightning that hangs high in the
> air or the ball lightning that falls out of a cloud

I don't think so. Our stuff works most places.

>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.

The last notion is false, I have loads of reports of rising balls. Most all balls rise a bit just before a silent death. Ferrite stones or nails are probably the likely thing that pulls balls down. It seems to be the case for our stuff.

>Thus, despite the numerous theoretical models proposed for the phenomenon,
>the mechanisms which cause the ball lighting remain unknown. All ball
>lightning theories fall into one of two general classes:

Well, that is a matter of opinion. But certainly my lightning, charging discharging, and ball and bead lightning models rub rain chasers the wrong way. Even true of tokamak fusion chaps, so you have a herd of company.

>Ball Lightning Theories
>-----------------------
>I. Energy source is stored within the ball (Internally powered) and

>E. Energy source is outside the ball (Externally powered)

1. is correct --- At least the ones we make are that way.

> Internally powered models
> -------------------------
>I1 The ball lightning is gas or air behaving in a "unusual" way. It has
> been suggested that the ball lightning is slowly burning gas, is the
> radiation from long-lived metastable states of air particles or from
> particles which absorb energy from the metastables, is due to chemical
> reactions involving dust, soots, etc., and so on.

Nope Although Steve Jones of Utah thinks so.

>I2 Ball lightning is a sphere of heated air at atmospheric pressure.
> Uman and Lowke (1968) have calculated the temporal and spatial
> characteristics of a sphere of hot air. It was found that for a sphere
> of about 0.2m in diameter, the cooling rate was about 100K/sec in the
> temperature range near 3000K and that the sphere maintained an
> essentially constant radius during the cooling process. Unfortunately,
> the relatively small cooling rate does not lead to a relatively
> constant ball brightness.

Nope it would die away in .3 - .5 seconds from the size of 1 to 1.5 meters. This is the case for "bead" lightning, and has been observed. The solid plasma balls shrink from the outside in ... constantly and with haste.

>I3 Ball lightning is a very high density plasma (with electron density
> 25 -3
> of 10 m ) which exhibits quantum mechanical properties
> characteristic of the solid state (Neugebauer, 1937)

Hmmmm! not true, but for a restricted region not far off (3 or orders max) that is.

>I4 Ball lightning is due to one of several suggested configurations of
> closed loop current flow contained by it's own magnetic field.
> Finkelstein and Rubinstein(1964) have shown that plasma containment
> of this type is not possible under normal conditions in air.

NO! F&R haven't; they only showed it for cases where the fields and currents inside are continuous. One can't apply the virial theorem to a volume confining boundary, unless the volume is continuous. Our model isn't, and we used it to produce our artificial bouncing bls in ordinary atmospheric air (STP). Balls can go Bang .. smoke clouds not.

>I5 Ball lightning is due to some sort of air vortex (like a smoke ring)
> providing containment for luminous gases.

Wham-o had a pop gun (bazooka sized) that generated neato Hill's vortices which could knock down a stack of cards twenty feet away after a leisurely drift to the target. I'll buy one if anybody out there still has his.

>I6 Ball lightning is a microwave radiation field contained within a thin
> spherical shell of plasma (Dawson and Jones, 1968).

Problem is it that this config isn't Raleigh-Taylor stable (uniform pressure).

> Externally powered models (External Power Sources)

Can't exist in a metal skinned enclosure. Also, if such stuff was noding around, it would blow peoples heads apart every once in a while, or certainly do them harm of noticeable proportions. Maybe THIS is the explanation of spontaneious combustion!

> -------------------------
>E1 High-frequency >100MHz EMF
> --------------------------
> Cerrillo(1943) and Kapitza(1955) proposed that focused RF energy from
> the thundercloud could create and maintain a ball lightning. The high
> electric fields necessary to effect this mechanism have never been
> observed in thunderstorms.

Yep

>E2 Steady current flow from cloud to ground
> ----------------------------------------
> Finklestein and Rubinstein(1964) and Uman and Helstrom(1966) have
> suggested that a steady current flowing from cloud to ground would
> contract in cross section in a region of high conductivity (the ball)
> and that the increased energy input due to the constriction of current
> could maintain the ball. This type of theory cannot account for the
> existence of ball lightning inside structures, particularly inside
> metal structures.

Ah! should have read ahead!

>E3 Focused Cosmic Ray Particles?
> -----------------------------
> Arabadzhi(1957) has suggested that radioactive cosmic-ray particles
> could be focused by the electric fields of the thunderstorm so that
> they would create an air discharge at one point in space.

Actually, Derrick Tidman, Umd theorized that the step leaders follow such CR tracks, which explain the randomish walk toward ground (zig zag).

[ .... ]

As far as I know, not many other folks make this stuff in a precise place at atm air and repeatably. AND it's one of these things that some still don't believe is real. Mostly mathematicians, that can't envision discountinuous magnetoplasmoid configurations. What delta functions current edges??

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