Ball lightning hit. What does ball lightning look like? How is it formed and why is it dangerous (photo)? The cluster hypothesis of ball lightning

Ball lightning

Ball lightning- a luminous ball floating in the air, a uniquely rare natural phenomenon, a unified physical theory of the origin and course of which has not yet been presented. There are about 400 theories explaining the phenomenon, but none of them has received absolute recognition in the academic environment. In laboratory conditions, similar, but short-term phenomena were obtained in several different ways, but the question of the only 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 kind of lightning that has existed for a long time and has the shape of a ball that can move along an unpredictable, sometimes surprising path for eyewitnesses.

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

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

Doubts about the reliability of many of the evidence complicate the study of the phenomenon, and also create the basis for the emergence of various speculative sensational materials, allegedly associated with this phenomenon.

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

Due to the fact that the appearance of ball lightning as a natural phenomenon rarely occurs, and attempts to artificially reproduce it on the scale of a natural phenomenon are not successful, the main material for the study of ball lightning is evidence of casual eyewitnesses unprepared for observations, nevertheless, some evidences describe 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 the 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, during their lifetime were inclined 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 - Sila" 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 propose his own theoretical model of ball lightning.

Historical evidence

Thunderstorm at Widcombe Moore
On October 21, 1638, lightning appeared during a thunderstorm in the church of the village of Widcombe Moore, 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. The balloon then allegedly broke the benches, smashed many windows and filled the room with thick, dark, sulfur-smelling smoke. Then he split in half; the first ball flew out, breaking another window, the second disappeared somewhere inside the church. As a result, 4 people were killed, 60 were injured. The phenomenon was explained by "the coming of the devil", or "hellfire" and blamed for everything two people who dared to play cards during the sermon.

An incident aboard the Catherine & Marie
In December 1726, some British newspapers printed an excerpt from a letter from a certain John Howell, who was aboard the sloop Catherine and Marie. “On August 29, we were walking along a bay off the coast of Florida, when a balloon flew out of a part of the ship. He smashed our mast into 10,000 pieces, if it were possible at all, and smashed the beam to pieces. Also, the ball tore three planks from the side planking, from the underwater and three from the deck; killed one person, injured another's hand, and if not for the heavy rains, 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 at about noon to measure the ship's coordinates. He noticed a fairly large blue fireball about three miles away. The order was immediately given to lower the topsails, but the balloon moved very quickly, and before it could change course, it took off almost vertically and, being no more than forty to fifty yards above the rig, disappeared with a powerful explosion, which is described as a simultaneous volley of thousands of guns. The top of the mainmast was destroyed. Five people were knocked down, one of them received many bruises. The ball left behind a strong smell of sulfur; before the explosion, its size reached the size of a millstone.

Death of Georg Richmann
In 1753, Georg Richman, 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 at the next meeting he heard that a thunderstorm was approaching, 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 directly 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 singed, his shoes were torn. The doorframes were smashed to pieces, and the door itself was blown off its hinges. Later, MV Lomonosov personally inspected the scene.

The Warren Hastings incident
One British publication reported that in 1809 the ship "Warren Hastings" during a storm "attacked three fireballs." The crew saw one of them descend and kill the man on deck. The one who decided to take the body was hit by the second ball; he was knocked down, light burns remained on his body. The third ball killed another person. The crew noted that there was a foul smell of sulfur over the deck after the accident.

Remark 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 ground 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 Fonvuel
A book by a French author reports about 150 encounters with ball-shaped lightning: “Apparently, ball-shaped 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 can be different, for example, in Köthen in the Duchy of Anhalt, lightning was green. M. Colon, vice chairman of the Geological Society of Paris, saw the ball slowly descend along the bark of the tree. When it touched the surface of the ground, it jumped up and disappeared without an explosion. On September 10, 1845, in the Correze Valley, lightning flew into the kitchen of a house in the village of Salanyak. The ball rolled through the entire room without causing any damage to the people there. When he reached the barn adjoining the kitchen, he suddenly exploded and killed a pig that was 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 quickly: some even saw how they stop, but from this the balls bring no less destruction. The lightning that flew into the church in Stralsund, during the explosion, threw out several small balls, which also exploded like artillery shells. "

A 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 "fireball". He recalled: “When my parents were away, my grandfather and I performed the rite of all-night vigil in the Alexandrian church. There was a strong thunderstorm; it seemed that lightning, following one after another, were about to shake the church and the whole world right to the ground. Suddenly it became completely dark when a gust of wind opened the gates of the church and extinguished the candles in front of the iconostasis. There was a louder thunder than usual, and I saw a ball of fire rush through the window. The ball (it was lightning) circled on the floor, flew past the candelabrum 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 the lightning flew past us. Then I thought that being scared like me is inappropriate and unmanly ... After the ball flew out, I looked at my grandfather again. He smiled slightly and nodded to me. My fear disappeared and I was never again afraid of a thunderstorm. "

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

Other evidence

During World War II, submariners have repeatedly and consistently reported small fireballs occurring in the confined space of a submarine. They appeared when turning on, turning off, or incorrectly turning on the battery of the accumulator, or in case of disconnection or incorrect connection of highly inductive electric motors. Attempts to reproduce the phenomenon using a spare submarine battery ended in failure and an 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 system for tracking lightning discharges at Uppsala University, which is located in the department of electricity and lightning, was triggered.

In 1954, 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 around 25-27 degrees Celsius, the sky quickly became overcast and a severe thunderstorm began. There was nothing nearby to hide, only a lone bush was nearby, which was bent to the ground by the wind. Suddenly, about 50 meters 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.It appeared at a distance of 2.5 m from the place of the lightning strike, so this place of impact was right in the middle between the ball and 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-impact-ball line. The ball also had one or two red curls, but not so bright, they disappeared after a split second (~ 0.3 s). The ball itself was slowly moving 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 no longer noticed the change in size. About three more seconds passed - the ball suddenly disappeared, and completely silently, although because of the noise of the thunderstorm I could not hear. " The author himself assumes 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, a fireball appeared in the dispatch building of the city emergency services. A ball with a two-meter tail jumped to the ceiling directly from the window, fell to the floor, jumped to the ceiling again, flew 2-3 meters, and then fell to the floor and disappeared. This frightened the employees, who smelled the burning wiring and thought that a fire had started. All computers were frozen (but not broken), communication equipment was out of order overnight until it was repaired. In addition, one monitor was destroyed.

On August 4, 2012, ball lightning scared a villager in the Pruzhany district of the Brest region. According to the newspaper "Rayonnya Budni", ball lightning flew into the house during a thunderstorm. Moreover, as the owner 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. Fortunately, the woman guessed that it was not necessary to make sudden movements, and was left just to sit still, watching the lightning. A ball of 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 hurt, only the interior decoration of the room was damaged, the newspaper reports.

Artificial reproduction of the phenomenon

Overview of approaches for artificial reproduction of ball lightning

Since in the appearance of ball lightning there is an obvious connection 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 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, which live for a maximum of several seconds, which does not correspond to eyewitness accounts of natural ball lightning.

List of statements on artificial reproduction of ball lightning

There have been several statements about the receipt of ball lightning in laboratories, but mainly skepticism has developed towards these statements in the academic environment. The question remains: "Are the phenomena observed in laboratory conditions identical to the natural phenomenon of ball lightning?"

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

Kapitsa was able to obtain a spherical gas discharge at atmospheric pressure in a helium medium. The addition 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 the still unopened black holes, 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 in the form of a ball.

Experimental verification of existing theories is difficult. Even if we consider only the assumptions published in serious scientific journals, the number of theoretical models that describe the phenomenon and answer these questions with varying degrees of success 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: assuming an external source, and theories, which believe that the source is inside the ball lightning.

Review of existing theories

The next 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 electrical forces, they gather into a ball and can coexist for a long time until their water "coat" collapses. This also explains the fact how the different color of ball lightning and its direct dependence on the lifetime of the ball lightning itself - the rate of destruction of water "coats" and the beginning of the process of avalanche recombination.

Literature

Ball lightning books and reports

Stakhanov I.P. On the physical nature of ball lightning. - Moscow: (Atomizdat, Energoatomizdat, Scientific World), (1979, 1985, 1996). - 240 p.
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. M .: Atomizdat, 1980
A. I. Grigoriev Ball lightning. Yaroslavl: YarSU, 2006.200 p.
Lisitsa M.P., Valakh M. Ya. Entertaining optics. Atmospheric and space optics. Kiev: 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.
V. N. Kunin Ball lightning at the experimental site. Vladimir: Vladimir State University, 2000, 84 p.

Articles in magazines

V.P. Torchigin, A.V. Torchigin Ball lightning as a concentrate of light. Chemistry and Life, 2003, No. 1, 47-49.
Barry J. Ball lightning. Clear zipper. 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"Eerie Barrier" 1939

Notes (edit)

I. Stakhanov "The physicist who knew about ball lightning more than anyone else"
This Russian version of the name is indicated in the list of UK dialing 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
A conductor from Kazan saved passengers from ball lightning
Fireball scared a villager in the Brest region - News of Incidents. [email protected]
KL Corum, JF Corum "Experiments on the creation of ball lightning using a high-frequency discharge and electrochemical fractal clusters" // UFN, 1990, vol. 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 SSSR 1955. Vol. 101, No. 2, pp. 245-248.
B.M.Smirnov, Physics Reports, 224 (1993) 151, Smirnov B.M.Physics of ball lightning // UFN, 1990, vol. 160. issue 4. pp. 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.
"V. P. Torchigin, A. V. Torchigin The mechanism of the appearance of ball lightning from ordinary lightning. DAN, 2004, vol. 398, No. 1, pp. 47-49.

As is often the case, the systematic study of ball lightning began with the denial of their existence: at the beginning of the 19th century, all scattered observations known by that time were recognized as either mysticism or, at best, an optical illusion.

But already in 1838, a review by the famous astronomer and physicist Dominique François Arago was published in the Yearbook of the French Bureau of Geographical Longitudes.

Subsequently, he became the initiator of the experiments of Fizeau and Foucault on measuring the speed of light, as well as the work that led Le Verrier to the discovery of Neptune.

Based on the then known descriptions of ball lightning, Arago came to the conclusion that many of these observations cannot be considered an illusion.

Over the 137 years that have passed since the publication of Arago's review, new eyewitness accounts and photographs have appeared. Dozens of theories were created, extravagant and witty, which explained some of the well-known properties of ball lightning, and those that did not stand up to elementary criticism.

Faraday, Kelvin, Arrhenius, Soviet physicists Ya. I. Frenkel and P. L. Kapitsa, many famous chemists, and finally, experts from the American National Commission on Astronautics and Aeronautics NASA tried to investigate and explain this interesting and formidable phenomenon. Ball lightning continues to remain a mystery to this day.

It is probably difficult to find a phenomenon, information about which would be so contradictory to each other. There are two main reasons: this phenomenon is very rare, and many observations are carried out extremely poorly.

Suffice it to say that large meteors and even birds were taken for ball lightning, to whose wings the dust of rotten stumps glowing in the dark adhered to. And yet, about a thousand reliable observations of ball lightning described in the literature are known.

What facts should scientists connect with a single theory to explain the origin of ball lightning? What are the limitations of observation on our imagination?

The first thing to explain is why ball lightning occurs frequently if it occurs frequently, or why does it occur rarely if it occurs rarely?

Let the reader not be surprised by this strange phrase - the frequency of occurrence of ball lightning is still a controversial issue.

And you also need to explain why ball lightning (it's not for nothing that it is called that) really has a shape that is usually close to a ball.

And to prove that it, in general, has to do with lightning - I must say, not all theories connect the appearance of this phenomenon with thunderstorms - and not without reason: sometimes it appears in cloudless weather, like, incidentally, other thunderstorm phenomena, for example, lights St. Elmo.

Here it is appropriate to recall the description of the meeting with ball lightning, given by the remarkable observer of nature and scientist Vladimir Klavdievich Arsenyev, a famous researcher of the Far Eastern taiga. This meeting took place in the Sikhote-Alin mountains on a clear moonlit night. Although many parameters of the lightning observed by Arseniev are typical, such cases are rare: usually ball lightning occurs during a thunderstorm.

In 1966, NASA circulated a questionnaire among two thousand people, in the first part of which two questions were asked: "Have you seen ball lightning?" and "Have you seen a linear lightning strike in the immediate vicinity?"

The answers made it possible to compare the frequency of observing ball lightning with the frequency of observing ordinary lightning. The result was stunning: 409 out of 2 thousand people saw a linear lightning strike at close range, and ball lightning - two times less. There was even a lucky one who met ball lightning 8 times - another indirect proof that this is not at all such a rare occurrence as is commonly thought.

Analysis of the second part of the questionnaire confirmed many of the previously known facts: ball lightning has an average diameter of about 20 cm; does not glow very brightly; the color is most often red, orange, white.

Interestingly, even observers who saw ball lightning up close often did not feel its heat radiation, although it burns when touched directly.

There is such a lightning from a few seconds to a minute; can penetrate into rooms through small openings, then regaining its shape. Many observers report that it throws out some kind of sparks and rotates.

She usually hovers a short distance from the ground, although she was also met in the clouds. Sometimes ball lightning quietly disappears, but sometimes it explodes, causing noticeable destruction.

The properties already listed are enough to confuse the researcher.

For example, what substance should ball lightning consist of if it does not fly up rapidly, like a balloon filled with smoke by the Montgolfier brothers, although it is heated to at least several hundred degrees?

Not everything is clear with the temperature either: judging by the color of the glow, the temperature of the lightning is not less than 8,000 ° K.

One of the observers, a chemist by profession who is familiar with plasma, estimated this temperature at 13,000-16,000 ° K! But photometry of the lightning trail left on the photographic film showed that radiation escapes not only from its surface, but also from the entire volume.

Many observers also report that lightning is translucent and the outlines of objects show through it. And this means that its temperature is much lower - no more than 5,000 degrees, since with greater heating, a layer of gas several centimeters thick is completely opaque and radiates like an absolutely black body.

The fact that ball lightning is rather "cold" is evidenced by the relatively weak thermal effect produced by it.

Ball lightning carries a lot of energy. In the literature, however, deliberately overestimated estimates are often found, but even a modest realistic figure - 105 joules - for a lightning with a diameter of 20 cm is very impressive. If such energy were spent only on light radiation, it could glow for many hours.

With an explosion of ball lightning, a power of a million kilowatts can develop, since this explosion proceeds very quickly. It is true that a person knows how to arrange even more powerful explosions, but if we compare them with “calm” sources of energy, then the comparison will not be in their favor.

In particular, the energy intensity (energy per unit mass) of lightning is significantly higher than that of existing chemical batteries. By the way, it was the desire to learn how to accumulate a relatively large energy in a small volume that attracted many researchers to the study of ball lightning. It is too early to say how these hopes can be justified.

The complexity of explaining such contradictory and diverse properties has led to the fact that the existing views on the nature of this phenomenon have exhausted, it seems, all conceivable possibilities.

Some scientists believe that lightning is constantly receiving energy from the outside. For example, P. L. Kapitsa suggested that it occurs when a powerful beam of decimeter radio waves is absorbed, which can be emitted during a thunderstorm.

In reality, for the formation of an ionized bunch, which is ball lightning in this hypothesis, the existence of a standing wave of electromagnetic radiation with a very high field strength in the antinodes is necessary.

The necessary conditions can be realized very rarely, so that, according to P. L. Kapitsa, the probability of observing ball lightning in a given place (that is, where the specialist observer is located) is practically zero.

Sometimes it is assumed that ball lightning is a luminous part of the channel connecting the cloud with the ground, through which a large current flows. Figuratively speaking, it is assigned the role of the only visible area for some reason, an invisible linear lightning. For the first time this hypothesis was expressed by the Americans M. Human and O. Finkelstein, and later there were several modifications of the theory developed by them.

The general difficulty of all these theories is that they assume the existence of extremely high density flows of energy for a long time, and it is because of this that they doom ball lightning to the "position" of an extremely unlikely phenomenon.

In addition, in the theory of Humann and Finkelstein, it is difficult to explain the shape of the lightning and its observed dimensions - the diameter of the lightning channel is usually about 3-5 cm, and ball lightning also occurs in a meter in diameter.

There are quite a few hypotheses suggesting that ball lightning itself is a source of energy. The most exotic mechanisms for extracting this energy have been invented.

As an example of such exoticism, one can cite the idea of D. Ashby and K. Whitehead, according to which ball lightning is formed during the annihilation of antimatter dust particles falling into the dense layers of the atmosphere from space, and then being carried away by a linear lightning discharge to the earth.

This idea, perhaps, could be supported theoretically, but, unfortunately, so far not a single suitable particle of antimatter has been discovered.

Most often, various chemical and even nuclear reactions are involved as a hypothetical source of energy. But at the same time it is difficult to explain the ball shape of lightning - if the reactions take place in a gaseous medium, then diffusion and wind will lead to the removal of "thunderstorm" (Arago's term) from a twenty-centimeter ball in a matter of seconds and deform it even earlier.

Finally, there is not a single reaction about which it would be known that it proceeds in air with the energy release necessary to explain ball lightning.

This point of view has been repeatedly expressed: ball lightning accumulates energy released when a linear lightning strikes. There are also many theories based on this assumption; a detailed review of them can be found in the popular book by S. Singer "The Nature of Ball Lightning".

These theories, as well as many others, contain difficulties and contradictions, which have received considerable attention in both serious and popular literature.

The cluster hypothesis of ball lightning

Let us now talk about a relatively new, so-called cluster hypothesis of ball lightning, developed in recent years by one of the authors of this article.

Let's start with the question, why is lightning in the shape of a ball? In general, it is not difficult to answer this question - there must be a force capable of holding together the particles of the "thunderstorm".

Why is a drop of water spherical? The surface tension gives it this shape.

The surface tension of a liquid arises from the fact that its particles - atoms or molecules - interact strongly with each other, much stronger than with the molecules of the surrounding gas.

Therefore, if a particle is near the interface, then a force begins to act on it, tending to return the molecule to the depth of the liquid.

The average kinetic energy of liquid particles is approximately equal to the average energy of their interaction, so the liquid molecules do not scatter. In gases, the kinetic energy of particles is so much greater than the potential energy of interaction that the particles are practically free and there is no need to talk about surface tension.

But ball lightning is a gas-like body, and the "thunderstorm" nevertheless has surface tension - hence the shape of the ball, which it most often has. The only substance that could have such properties is plasma, ionized gas.

Plasma consists of positive and negative ions and free electrons, that is, electrically charged particles. The energy of interaction between them is much greater than between atoms of a neutral gas, and the surface tension is correspondingly higher.

However, at relatively low temperatures - say, 1,000 degrees Kelvin - and at normal atmospheric pressure, ball lightning from plasma could only exist in thousandths of a second, since ions quickly recombine, that is, they turn into neutral atoms and molecules.

This contradicts observations - ball lightning lives longer. At high temperatures - 10-15 thousand degrees - the kinetic energy of the particles becomes too large, and the ball lightning should simply fall apart. Therefore, researchers have to use powerful means to "extend the life" of ball lightning, to keep it at least a few tens of seconds.

In particular, P. L. Kapitsa introduced into his model a powerful electromagnetic wave capable of constantly generating new low-temperature plasma. Other researchers, suggesting that the lightning plasma is hotter, had to figure out how to keep the ball out of this plasma, that is, to solve a problem that has not yet been solved, although it is very important for many areas of physics and technology.

But what if we go the other way - introduce into the model a mechanism that slows down the recombination of ions? Let's try to use water for this purpose. Water is a polar solvent. Its molecule can be roughly thought of as a stick, one end of which is positively charged and the other negatively charged.

Water is attached to the positive ions by the negative end, and to the negative - by the positive, forming a protective layer - the solvation shell. It can drastically slow down recombination. An ion together with a solvation shell is called a cluster.

So we finally come to the main ideas of the cluster theory: when linear lightning is discharged, almost complete ionization of the molecules that make up the air, including water molecules, occurs.

The resulting ions begin to quickly recombine, this stage takes thousandths of a second. At some point, there are more neutral water molecules than the remaining ions, and the process of cluster formation begins.

It also lasts, apparently, for a fraction of a second and ends with the formation of a "thunderstorm" - similar in its properties to plasma and consisting of ionized air and water molecules surrounded by solvation shells.

True, so far all this is only an idea, and it is necessary to see if it can explain the numerous known properties of ball lightning. Let us recall the well-known saying that a hare is at least necessary for a hare stew, and we ask ourselves the question: can clusters form in the air? The answer is comforting: yes, they can.

The proof of this literally fell (was brought) from the sky. In the late 1960s, a detailed study of the lowest layer of the ionosphere, layer D, located at an altitude of about 70 km, was carried out using geophysical rockets. It turned out, despite the fact that at such a height there is very little water, all the ions in the D layer are surrounded by solvation shells consisting of several water molecules.

In the cluster theory, it is assumed that the temperature of ball lightning is less than 1000 ° K, so there is no strong thermal radiation from it. At this temperature, electrons easily "stick" to atoms, forming negative ions, and all the properties of the "lightning substance" are determined by clusters.

In this case, the density of the lightning matter turns out to be approximately equal to the density of air under normal atmospheric conditions, that is, lightning can be somewhat heavier than air and sink down, it can be slightly lighter than air and rise and, finally, it can be in suspension if the density of the "lightning matter" and air are equal.

All these cases have been observed in nature. By the way, the fact that lightning goes down does not mean that it will fall to the ground - warming up the air under it, it can create an air cushion holding it in weight. Obviously, therefore, hovering is the most common form of ball lightning movement.

Clusters interact with each other much stronger than neutral gas atoms. Evaluations have shown that the resulting surface tension is sufficient to give the lightning a ball shape.

The density tolerance decreases rapidly with increasing lightning radius. Since the probability of an exact coincidence of the density of air and lightning matter is small, large lightnings - more than a meter in diameter - are extremely rare, while small ones should appear more often.

But lightning less than three centimeters in size is also practically not observed. Why? To answer this question, it is necessary to consider the energy balance of ball lightning, to find out where the energy is stored in it, how much of it and what it is spent on. The energy of ball lightning is naturally contained in clusters. When the negative and positive clusters recombine, an energy of 2 to 10 electron volts is released.

Plasma usually loses quite a lot of energy in the form of electromagnetic radiation - its appearance is due to the fact that light electrons, moving in the field of ions, acquire very large accelerations.

The substance of lightning consists of heavy particles, it is not so easy to accelerate them, therefore the electromagnetic field is emitted weakly and most of the energy is removed from the lightning by the heat flow from its surface.

The heat flux is proportional to the surface area of the ball lightning, and the energy reserve is proportional to the volume. Therefore, small lightnings quickly lose their relatively small reserves of energy, and, although they appear much more often than large ones, it is more difficult to notice them: they live too little.

So, a lightning with a diameter of 1 cm cools down in 0.25 seconds, and with a diameter of 20 cm in 100 seconds. This last figure roughly coincides with the maximum observed lifetime of ball lightning, but significantly exceeds its average lifetime, equal to several seconds.

The most real mechanism of "dying" of a large lightning is associated with the loss of stability of its border. During the recombination of a pair of clusters, a dozen light particles are formed, which at the same temperature leads to a decrease in the density of the "thunderstorm" and to a violation of the conditions for the existence of lightning long before its energy is exhausted.

Surface instability begins to develop, lightning throws out pieces of its substance and, as it were, jumps from side to side. The discarded pieces cool down almost instantly, like small lightning bolts, and the shattered large lightning ends its existence.

But another mechanism of its decay is also possible. If, for some reason, heat dissipation worsens, the lightning will begin to heat up. This will increase the number of clusters with a small number of water molecules in the shell, they will recombine faster, and a further increase in temperature will occur. The result is an explosion.

Why does ball lightning glow?

What facts should scientists connect with a single theory to explain the nature of ball lightning?

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There is a fireball from a few seconds to a minute; can enter rooms through small openings, then regaining its shape

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During cluster recombination, the released heat is rapidly distributed between colder molecules.

But at some point the temperature of the "volume" near the recombined particles can exceed the average temperature of the lightning substance by more than 10 times.

This "volume" glows like a gas heated to 10,000-15,000 degrees. There are comparatively few such "hot spots", so the substance of ball lightning remains semitransparent.

It is clear that from the point of view of cluster theory, ball lightning can appear frequently. Lightning with a diameter of 20 cm requires only a few grams of water to form, and there is usually plenty of water during a thunderstorm. Water is most often sprayed into the air, but in extreme cases, ball lightning can "find" it for itself on the surface of the earth.

By the way, since electrons are very mobile, during the formation of lightning, some of them may be "lost", ball lightning as a whole will be charged (positively), and its movement will be determined by the distribution of the electric field.

The residual electric charge explains such interesting properties of ball lightning as its ability to move against the wind, be attracted to objects and hang over high places.

The color of ball lightning is determined not only by the energy of the solvate shells and the temperature of the hot "volumes", but also by the chemical composition of its substance. It is known that if ball lightning appears when linear lightning strikes copper wires, then it is often colored blue or green - the usual "colors" of copper ions.

It is quite possible that excited metal atoms can also form clusters. The appearance of such "metallic" clusters could explain some experiments with electric discharges, which resulted in the appearance of luminous balls, similar to ball lightning.

From what has been said, one might get the impression that thanks to the cluster theory, the problem of ball lightning has finally received its final resolution. But it is not so.

Despite the fact that the cluster theory is based on calculations, hydrodynamic calculations of stability, with its help it was possible, apparently, to understand many properties of ball lightning, it would be a mistake to say that the riddle of ball lightning no longer exists.

In confirmation, there is only one stroke, one detail. In his story, V.K.Arseniev mentions a thin tail extending from ball lightning. So far we can not explain either the cause of its occurrence, or even what it is ...

As already mentioned, about a thousand reliable observations of ball lightning are described in the literature. This, of course, is not very much. Obviously, each new observation, with its careful analysis, allows one to obtain interesting information about the properties of ball lightning, helps in checking the validity of a particular theory.

Therefore, it is very important that as many observations as possible become the property of researchers and the observers themselves actively participate in the study of ball lightning. This is exactly what the Ball Lightning experiment is aimed at, which will be discussed further.

A case from the life of Nicholas II: The last Russian emperor, in the presence of his grandfather Alexander II, observed a phenomenon that he called a "fireball". He recalled: “When my parents were away, my grandfather and I performed the rite of all-night vigil in the Alexandrian church. There was a strong thunderstorm; it seemed that lightning, following one after another, were about to shake the church and the whole world right to the ground. Suddenly it became completely dark when a gust of wind opened the gates of the church and extinguished the candles in front of the iconostasis. There was a louder thunder than usual, and I saw a ball of fire rush through the window. The ball (it was lightning) circled on the floor, flew past the candelabrum 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 the lightning flew past us. Then I thought that being scared like me is unseemly and unmanly. After the ball flew out, I looked at my grandfather again. He smiled slightly and nodded to me. My fear disappeared and I was never again afraid of a thunderstorm. " A case from the life of Aleister Crowley: The renowned British occultist Aleister Crowley spoke of what he called "ball-shaped electricity" which he observed in 1916 during a thunderstorm at Lake Pasconi in New Hampshire. He took refuge in a small country house when “in silent amazement he noticed that a dazzling ball of electric fire, three to six inches in diameter, had stopped six inches from his right knee. I looked at him, and he suddenly exploded with a sharp sound that could not be confused with what was raging outside: the sound of a thunderstorm, the clatter of hail or streams of water and the crackling of a tree. My hand was closest to the ball and she only felt a faint impact. " Case in India: On April 30, 1877, ball lightning flew into the central temple of Amristar (India) Harmandir Sahib. The phenomenon was observed by several people until the ball left the room through the front door. This incident is captured on the gate of Darshani Deodi. Case in Colorado: On November 22, 1894, fireball appeared in Golden, Colorado (USA), which lasted an unexpectedly long time. As the Golden Globe newspaper reported: “On Monday night, a beautiful and strange phenomenon could be observed in the city. A strong wind rose and the air seemed to be filled with electricity. Those who happened to be near the school that night could watch the fireballs flying one after another for half an hour. This building houses electric dynamos, arguably the finest factory in the state. Probably, last Monday a delegation arrived at the dynamos directly from the clouds. This visit was definitely a success, as was the frantic game they played together. " Case in Australia: In July 1907, a ball of lightning struck the Cape Naturalist lighthouse on the west coast of Australia. Lighthouse keeper Patrick Baird lost consciousness, and the phenomenon was described by his daughter Ethel. Ball lightning on submarines: During World War II, submariners have repeatedly and consistently reported small fireballs occurring in the confined space of a submarine. They appeared when turning on, turning off or incorrectly turning on the battery of the accumulator, or in case of disconnection or incorrect connection of highly inductive electric motors. Attempts to reproduce the phenomenon using a spare submarine battery ended in failure and an explosion. Case in Sweden: In 1944, on August 6, in the Swedish city of Uppsala, ball lightning passed through a closed window, leaving a round hole about 5 cm in diameter. The phenomenon was observed not only by local residents - a system for tracking lightning discharges at Uppsala University, created at the department of study of electricity and lightning, was triggered. The case on the Danube: In 1954, physicist Tar Domokosh observed lightning in a strong thunderstorm. He described what he saw in sufficient detail. “It happened on Margaret Island on the Danube. It was somewhere around 25–27 ° С, the sky quickly became overcast and a severe thunderstorm began. There was nothing nearby to hide, only a lonely bush, which was bent to the ground by the wind. Suddenly, about 50 meters from me, lightning struck the ground. It was a very bright channel 25–30 cm in diameter and was exactly perpendicular to the surface of the earth. It was dark for about two seconds, and then, at a height of 1.2 m, a beautiful ball with a diameter of 30-40 cm appeared. It appeared at a distance of 2.5 m from the place of the lightning strike, so that this place of impact was right in the middle between the ball and bush. The ball sparkled like a small sun and rotated counterclockwise. The axis of rotation was parallel to the ground and perpendicular to the line “bush - impact site - ball”. The ball also had one or two red curls, but not so bright, they disappeared after a split second (~ 0.3 s). The ball itself was slowly moving 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 no longer noticed the change in size. About three more seconds passed - the ball suddenly disappeared, and completely silently, although because of the noise of the thunderstorm I could not hear. " Case in Kazan: In 2008, in Kazan, ball lightning flew into the window of a trolleybus. The conductor, using a ticket checking machine, threw her to the end of the cabin, where there were no passengers, and a few seconds later an explosion occurred. There were 20 people in the cabin, no one was hurt. The trolleybus was out of order, the ticket checking machine warmed up, turned white, but remained in working order.

The question of the existence of ball lightning - a luminous electric ball hovering above the earth - has been troubling scientists for many centuries, creating a huge layer of myths and legends around them. This mystical natural phenomenon, which can also be called "earth lightning", usually appears during a thunderstorm in the form of a sphere drifting above the ground - the colors of these objects vary from orange to yellow. The phenomenon lasts, as a rule, not for long - only a couple of seconds, but it is accompanied by hissing and a pungent smell.

Lightning, as such, is an electrical discharge caused by a positive and negative imbalance within the clouds themselves or between thunderclouds and the ground. A lightning flash can heat the air around it to temperatures up to five times the sun. The heat causes the surrounding air to rapidly expand and vibrate, hence thunder appears.

What is Ball Lightning?

Ball lightning is a luminous spherical bunch of electric current. Even if it exists, and some scientists doubt it, it is very rare. However, many amazing stories are known about the tricks of ball lightning.

What does ball lightning look like?

Descriptions of ball lightning are very different from each other, so it is not possible to accurately answer the question posed. So, some eyewitnesses described them as moving up and down, others - to the side, others - along an unpredictable trajectory, fourth - were in a static position, fifth - against the wind. There were also claims that fireballs could be repelled without any impact from people, cars or buildings; others claim that this phenomenon, on the contrary, is attracted by surrounding objects.

Some eyewitnesses claim that fireballs are capable of passing through solid objects - metals, trees without any effect; others say that on contact with a "ball of fire" substances explode, melt, or otherwise be destroyed. There was evidence of the occurrence of lightning near power lines, at different heights, in a thunderstorm and in calm weather.

Eyewitnesses gave the phenomenon many different types - transparent, translucent, multicolored, uniformly illuminated, emitting flame, threads or sparks; and its shapes vary no less - spheres, ovals, drops, rods or discs. Some people often confuse ball lightning with the Lights of St. Elmo, but you need to understand that these are two different natural phenomena.

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It was reported that the balls disappeared in various ways - evaporated, disappeared abruptly, gradually dispersed, absorbed by nearby objects, popped, exploded loudly, or even caused damage to everything around. The danger to people is also very different from witness to witness - some talk about complete harmlessness, others frighten with mortal danger.

In 1972, an attempt was made to analyze all available information about ball lightning and create the most accurate image of this mystery of nature. It turned out that the fiery sphere has the following properties:

appears almost simultaneously with a lightning discharge;
usually spherical or pear-shaped;
diameter varies from 1 to 100 cm;
the brightness is about the same as that of a regular table lamp;
there is a wide range of possible colors, the most common are red, orange and yellow;
the duration of "life" is from 1 second to a whole minute. Brightness is maintained throughout the entire phenomenon;
usually moves, but mostly horizontally at a speed of several meters per second.
sometimes they can move vertically or just stand still;
can make rotational movements;
some witnesses reported feeling hot when close to lightning;
strive for metals;
can spawn in buildings by going through doors and windows;
some appeared in metal planes without causing any damage;
disappearance can occur both with an explosion and in the form of silent evaporation;
odors are often reported - ozone, sulfur or nitric oxide.

Types of ball lightning

Based on eyewitness accounts, there are two types of ball lightning. The first is red lightning descending from the cloud. When such a heavenly gift touches any object on the ground, such as a tree, it explodes.

Interesting: Ball lightning can be the size of a soccer ball and can hiss and buzz menacingly.

Another type of ball lightning travels for a long time along the earth's surface and glows with a bright white light. The ball is attracted to good conductors of electricity and can touch anything - the ground, a power line, or a person.

Eyewitness accounts

Observations of ball lightning go far into the jungle of human history. There have been many eyewitness accounts of such a rare and amazing natural phenomenon. But even despite the large number of eyewitness testimonies, until 2010, the theory of the existence of ball lightning was in question.

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And while the scientific world is in ignorance and controversy, offering as many as 400 different theories, you can make a conclusion for yourself about the reality of ball lightning by reading the history of registered eyewitness accounts of this mystery of nature.

Thunderstorm in Wydecom-in-the-Moor

One of the earliest accounts tells of the "Great Thunderstorm" that occurred at Wydecom-in-the-Moore Church in Devon, England on October 21, 1638. During a strong storm, a huge luminous ball flew into the church, almost completely destroying it. Stone elements and huge wooden beams were thrown many meters in different directions. Eyewitnesses stated that lightning smashed everything in its path - benches and glass - it filled the entire church with a sulfurous smell and dark thick smoke.

The victims told that the mysterious ball at some point split into two parts - one of them went out the window, breaking it, and the other evaporated in the church itself.

Eyewitnesses - because of the smell of sulfur and the destructive power of the phenomenon - agreed that it was the devil himself, who unleashed God's wrath on people. It was believed that two parishioners were to blame for everything, who decided to play cards during the sermon.

Ebenezer Cobham Brewer

Ebenezer Cobham Brewer, English writer, in 1864 in his book "A Guide to the Scientific Knowledge of Things" discusses ball lightning. There, he describes this phenomenon as slowly moving balls of fire and gas that can fall to the ground or move quickly across it during a thunderstorm. The writer talked about how the balls can explode “like a cannon”.

Wilfried de Fonviel

In his book Thunder and Lightning, French writer Wilfried de Fonviel claims that there have been over 150 reports of fireballs.

These are probably the most famous incidents in history, but there have been many others.

On April 30, 1877, a ball of lightning flew into the Golden Temple in Amritsar, India, and flew out through a side door. Several people witnessed this phenomenon and the incident was recorded on the front wall of Darshani Deodhi;

Pilots in World War II described an unusual phenomenon for which a ball lightning version was proposed as an explanation. They saw small balls of light moving along strange paths, which became known as foo fighters.

In 2005, there was an incident in the skies over Guernsey when lightning struck a plane. Eyewitnesses to this event claimed to have seen fireballs.

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On December 15, 2014, during flight BE-6780 in the UK, passengers observed a fireball in the front of the cabin shortly before the lightning struck the plane.

How does ball lightning form?

Visual hallucination

In 2010, scientists from the Austrian University of Innsbruck published their hypothesis, which for the first time fell under Popper's criteria (that is, this is the first hypothesis that can be considered scientific). Experts considered that the phenomenon of ball lightning is not a natural anomaly, but only phosphene (that is, a visual hallucination that occurs without direct exposure to light on the receptors of the eye, causing the observed images of luminous points and figures that appear in the dark).

Peer and Kändel speculate that the changing environmental conditions of lightning strikes affect people's optic nerves in such a way that they think they are seeing fireballs. A similar effect can be caused even at a distance of 100 meters from the immediate point of the lightning strike.

For two years, this theory was considered the main one, and it seemed to the scientific world that the issue was resolved, but in 2012 something happened in the Tibetan plateau region that returned ball lightning to the agenda. Chinese meteorologists who installed spectrometers for observing ordinary lightning, were able to fix the glow of ball lightning... It lasted exactly 1.64 seconds, and specialists managed to register its detailed spectra. They are very different from regular lightning, which has lines of ionized nitrogen, whereas ball lightning had iron, silicon and calcium found in the soil.

Thus, we can conclude that the hypothesis of Austrian scientists is not exhaustive. But Until now, there is not a single irrefutable theory about why such an anomaly occurs... AND many experts doubt its existence at all.

Chemical reaction

Chinese meteorologists from Lanzhou, who recorded ball lightning in 2012, published their hypothesis for the occurrence of ball lightning. So they suggested that the anomaly occurs due to certain chemical reactions between oxygen and elements that evaporate from the soil when struck by lightning. This ionized air, or plasma, can also cause another effect called St. Elmo's Lights (they are a stationary glow that often occurs at the ends of the masts of ships. It is sometimes confused with ball lightning).

But that wasn't the only theory that was published in 2012. At the same time, another assumption was made, according to which glass can become a source of ball lightning. So experts assume that ions from the atmosphere can accumulate on the surface of the glass, and when they are sufficiently concentrated, a discharge is generated, which becomes ball lightning. Four years after these two studies, an article appeared where it was reported that microwave radiation generated by a lightning strike can be “encapsulated” in a ball of plasma - this is ball lightning.

Microwave beams

But scientists tried not only to analyze the evidence that came from the past, but also in laboratory conditions tried to recreate this mysterious phenomenon. So Israeli specialists from the University of Tel Aviv were able to cause their version of ball lightning using microwave beams. In a very recent experiment conducted in 2018, quantum physicists decided to create ball lightning using a synthetically coupled magnetic field.

But these are far from all theories of the appearance of ball lightning, but only the most recent of them. Scientists continue to puzzle over such an elusive phenomenon, which is not the fact that it even exists.

Laboratory experiments

Scientists have long tried to recreate ball lightning in the laboratory. Although some experiments have produced effects that are visually similar to evidence of natural ball lightning, it has not yet been confirmed if there is any connection between the two.

Reportedly, Nikola Tesla could artificially create small glowing balls with a diameter of 30-40 mm, and also conducted some demonstrations of his skills. But it was only a hobby for the great scientist, so he did not leave any notes or explanations. He was more interested in higher voltages and powers, as well as remote transmission of energy, so the balls he made were just a manifestation of curiosity.

The International Committee on Ball Lightning (ICBL) regularly held symposia on this topic. The group uses the generic name "Unconventional Plasma". The last ICBL symposium was tentatively scheduled for July 2012 in San Marcos, Texas, but was canceled due to a lack of abstracts submitted.

Ball lightning is one of the most amazing and dangerous natural phenomena. How to behave and what to do when meeting with her, you will learn from this article.