Report about ball lightning. Ball lightning is an unsolved mystery of nature. Ball lightning color
The first written mention of mysterious and mysterious fireballs can be found in the chronicles of 106 BC. BC: “Huge fiery birds appeared over Rome, carrying hot coals in their beaks, which, falling down, burned houses. The city was on fire...” Also, more than one description of ball lightning was discovered in Portugal and France in the Middle Ages, the phenomenon of which prompted alchemists to spend time looking for opportunities to dominate the spirits of fire.
Ball lightning is considered a special type of lightning, which is a luminous fireball floating through the air (sometimes shaped like a mushroom, drop or pear). Its size usually ranges from 10 to 20 cm, and it itself comes in blue, orange or white tones (although you can often see other colors, even black), the color is heterogeneous and often changes. People who have seen what ball lightning looks like say that inside it consists of small, stationary parts.
As for the temperature of the plasma ball, it has not yet been determined: although, according to scientists’ calculations, it should range from 100 to 1000 degrees Celsius, people who found themselves near the fireball did not feel the heat from it. If it explodes unexpectedly (although this does not always happen), all the liquid nearby evaporates, and the glass and metal melts.
A case was recorded when a plasma ball, once in a house, fell into a barrel containing sixteen liters of freshly brought well water. However, it did not explode, but boiled the water and disappeared. After the water finished boiling, it was hot for twenty minutes.
A fireball can exist for quite a long time, and when moving, it can suddenly change direction, and it can even hang in the air for several minutes, after which it abruptly moves away to the side at a speed of 8 to 10 m/s.
Ball lightning occurs mainly during a thunderstorm, but repeated cases of its appearance in sunny weather have also been recorded. It usually appears in a single copy (at least modern science has not recorded anything else), and often in the most unexpected way: it can descend from the clouds, appear in the air, or float out from behind a pillar or tree. It is not difficult for her to penetrate into a closed space: there are known cases of her appearing from sockets, televisions, and even in pilot cockpits.
Many cases of constant occurrence of ball lightning in the same place have been recorded. So, in a small town near Pskov there is a Devil's Glade, where black ball lightning periodically jumps out of the ground (it began to appear here after the fall of the Tunguska meteorite). Its constant occurrence in the same place gave scientists the opportunity to try to record this appearance using sensors, however, without success: they were all melted while ball lightning moved across the clearing.
Secrets of ball lightning
For a long time, scientists did not even admit the existence of such a phenomenon as ball lightning: information about its appearance was attributed mainly to either an optical illusion or hallucinations that affect the retina of the eye after a flash of ordinary lightning. Moreover, the evidence about what ball lightning looks like was largely inconsistent, and during its reproduction in laboratory conditions it was possible to obtain only short-term phenomena.
Everything changed after the beginning of the 19th century. physicist Francois Arago published a report with collected and systematized eyewitness accounts of the phenomenon of ball lightning. Although these data managed to convince many scientists of the existence of this amazing phenomenon, skeptics still remained. Moreover, the mysteries of ball lightning do not decrease over time, but only multiply.
First of all, the nature of the appearance of the amazing ball is unclear, since it appears not only in a thunderstorm, but also on a clear, fine day.
The composition of the substance is also unclear, which allows it to penetrate not only through door and window openings, but also through tiny cracks, and then again take on its original form without harming itself (physicists are currently unable to solve this phenomenon).
Some scientists, studying the phenomenon, have put forward the assumption that ball lightning is actually a gas, but in this case, the plasma ball, under the influence of internal heat, would have to fly up like a hot air balloon.
And the nature of the radiation itself is unclear: where does it come from - only from the surface of the lightning, or from its entire volume. Also, physicists cannot help but be faced with the question of where the energy disappears, what is inside the ball lightning: if it only went into radiation, the ball would not disappear in a few minutes, but would glow for a couple of hours.
Despite the huge number of theories, physicists still cannot give a scientifically sound explanation of this phenomenon. But, there are two opposing versions that have gained popularity in scientific circles.
Hypothesis No. 1
Dominic Arago not only systematized the data on the plasma ball, but also tried to explain the mystery of ball lightning. According to his version, ball lightning is a specific interaction of nitrogen with oxygen, during which energy is released that creates lightning.
Another physicist Frenkel supplemented this version with the theory that the plasma ball is a spherical vortex, consisting of dust particles with active gases that became so due to the resulting electrical discharge. For this reason, a vortex-ball may well exist for quite a long time. His version is supported by the fact that a plasma ball usually appears in dusty air after an electrical discharge, and leaves behind a small smoke with a specific odor.
Thus, this version suggests that all the energy of the plasma ball is inside it, which is why ball lightning can be considered an energy storage device.
Hypothesis No. 2
Academician Pyotr Kapitsa did not agree with this opinion, since he argued that for the continuous glow of lightning, additional energy was needed that would feed the ball from the outside. He put forward a version that the phenomenon of ball lightning is fueled by radio waves with a length of 35 to 70 cm, resulting from electromagnetic oscillations arising between thunderclouds and the earth's crust.
He explained the explosion of ball lightning by an unexpected stop in the energy supply, for example, a change in the frequency of electromagnetic oscillations, as a result of which rarefied air “collapses.”
Although his version was liked by many, the nature of ball lightning does not correspond to the version. At the moment, modern equipment has never recorded radio waves of the desired wavelength, which would appear as a result of atmospheric discharges. In addition, water is an almost insurmountable obstacle to radio waves, and therefore a plasma ball would not be able to heat water, as in the case of a barrel, much less boil it.
The hypothesis also casts doubt on the scale of the plasma ball explosion: it is not only capable of melting or smashing durable and strong objects into pieces, but also breaking thick logs, and its shock wave can overturn a tractor. At the same time, the ordinary “collapse” of rarefied air is not capable of performing all these tricks, and its effect is similar to a bursting balloon.
What to do if you encounter ball lightning
Whatever the reason for the appearance of an amazing plasma ball, it must be borne in mind that a collision with it is extremely dangerous, since if a ball filled with electricity touches a living creature, it may well kill, and if it explodes, it will destroy everything around.
When you see a fireball at home or on the street, the main thing is not to panic, not to make sudden movements and not to run: ball lightning is extremely sensitive to any air turbulence and may well follow it.
You need to slowly and calmly turn out of the way of the ball, trying to stay as far away from it as possible, but under no circumstances turn your back. If ball lightning is indoors, you need to go to the window and open the window: following the movement of air, the lightning will most likely fly out.
It is also strictly forbidden to throw anything into the plasma ball: this may well lead to an explosion, and then injuries, burns, and in some cases even cardiac arrest are inevitable. If it so happens that a person was unable to move away from the trajectory of the ball, and it hit him, causing loss of consciousness, the victim should be moved to a ventilated room, wrapped warmly, given artificial respiration and, of course, immediately call an ambulance.
Ball lightning - an unusual natural phenomenon that is a luminous clot of electric current. It is almost impossible to find it in nature, even some scientists claim that it is impossible.
How does ball lightning occur?
Most experts say that ball lightning appears after a strike by ordinary lightning. Their size can be as big as a regular peach and up to the size of a soccer ball. The color of ball lightning can be orange, yellow, red or bright white. With each approach of the ball, you can hear a terrible buzzing and hissing.
The lifetime of ball lightning can reach several minutes. There is one theory that states that ball lightning is replica of a small thundercloud. Perhaps tiny specks of dust constantly exist in the air, and lightning, in turn, gives an electrical charge to the specks of dust in a specific area of the air. Some dust particles are charged negatively, while others are charged positively. Then millions of small lightning bolts connect differently charged dust particles, and then a sparkling round ball is created in the air.
- Ball lightning is a fairly rare natural phenomenon.
- At the moment it is impossible to say exactly how ball lightning occurs. There are hundreds of theories that explain its appearance, but none of them have been proven.
- In 1638, the appearance of ball lightning was first documented. At that time, she flew into the church during a thunderstorm.
- Ball lightning can easily melt window glass.
- Most often, ball lightning enters an apartment through doors and windows.
- The speed of movement of this natural phenomenon can reach up to 10 meters per second.
- It is assumed that the temperature in the center of the ball is thousands of degrees.
How ball lightning forms and how to behave is important for every person to know, because no one is safe from encountering it. Scientists believe that ball lightning is a special type of lightning. It moves through the air in the form of a luminous fireball (it can also look like a mushroom, drop or pear). The size of ball lightning is approximately 10-20 cm. Those who have seen it up close say that small motionless parts can be seen inside the ball lightning.
Ball lightning can easily penetrate enclosed spaces: it appears from an outlet, from a TV, or can appear in the cockpit. There are known cases when ball lightning occurs in the same place, flying out of the ground.
Ball lightning remains a mysterious phenomenon for scientists
For a long time, scientists did not even recognize the fact that ball lightning exists. And when information appeared that someone had seen her, everything was attributed to optical illusion or hallucinations. However, a report by physicist François Arago changed everything. The scientist systematized and published eyewitness accounts of such a phenomenon as ball lightning.
Many scientists have since recognized the existence of the phenomenon of ball lightning in nature, but this has not reduced the number of mysteries; on the contrary, they are only becoming more numerous over time.
Everything about ball lightning is unclear: how this amazing ball appears - it appears not only during a thunderstorm, but also on a clear, fine day. It is not clear what it consists of - what kind of substance that can penetrate through a tiny crack and then become round again. Physicists currently cannot answer all these questions.
Today there are many theories regarding ball lightning, but no one has yet been able to substantiate the phenomenon from a scientific point of view. In scientific circles, there are two opposing versions that are popular today.
Ball lightning and its formation in accordance with hypothesis No. 1
Dominic Arago managed not only to systematize all the collected information regarding the plasma ball, but also to make explanations regarding the mystery of this object. The scientist’s version is that ball lightning is formed due to a specific interaction between nitrogen and oxygen. The process is accompanied by the release of energy, which causes the formation of lightning.
According to another physicist, Frenkel, this version may still be added by another theory. It involves the formation of a plasma ball from a spherical vortex, the composition of which is dust particles and active gases created by an electric discharge. This causes the existence of the ball vortex for quite a long time.
This version is confirmed by the fact that the appearance of a plasma ball occurs after an electric discharge precisely where the air is dusty, and when the ball lightning disappears, a certain haze and a specific smell remain after it. From this hypothesis we can conclude that all the energy of ball lightning is located inside it, which means that this substance is an energy storage device.
Ball lightning and its formation in accordance with hypothesis No. 2
According to Kapitsa, ball lightning is fueled by radio waves, the length of which can be 35-70 cm. The reason for their occurrence is associated with electromagnetic oscillations - the result of the interaction of thunderclouds and the earth's crust.
The academician suggested that ball lightning explodes at the moment when the energy supply suddenly stops. This may appear as a change in the frequency of an electromagnetic wave. The so-called “collapse” process occurs.
There were supporters of the second hypothesis, but by its nature, ball lightning refutes it. To date, with the help of modern equipment, the radio waves that Kapitsa mentions have not been detected after discharges in the atmosphere.
The scale of the event during a ball lightning explosion also contradicts the second hypothesis: highly durable objects are melted or smashed into pieces, logs of enormous thickness are broken, and a tractor was once overturned by the shock wave.
Ball lightning requires special behavior from those who encounter it
If you have the opportunity to encounter ball lightning, there is no need to panic, let alone rush about. You have to treat her like a mad dog. No sudden movements or running, because with the slightest turbulence in the air, lightning can be directed to this place.
A person’s behavior should be leisurely and calm. You should try to stay as far away from lightning as possible, but you should not turn your back to it. If the plasma ball is located indoors, it is advisable to get to the window and open the window. The ball may succumb to air movement and end up on the street.
You cannot throw anything at the plasma ball, because this is fraught with an explosion, which will inevitably lead to big problems associated with injuries and burns. Sometimes people's heart even stops.
If you find yourself next to a person who is unlucky and is struck by lightning, causing him to lose consciousness, he should be given first aid and call an ambulance. The victim should be moved to a ventilated area and wrapped warmly. In addition, the person needs to undergo artificial respiration.
As often happens, 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 compiled by the famous astronomer and physicist Dominique Francois 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 to measure 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 concluded that many of these observations could not 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 ingenious, that explained some of the 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, specialists from the American National Commission for Astronautics and Aeronautics NASA tried to explore and explain this interesting and formidable phenomenon. And ball lightning continues to remain largely a mystery to this day.
It is probably difficult to find a phenomenon about which information would be so contradictory. There are two main reasons: this phenomenon is very rare, and many observations are carried out in an extremely unskilled manner.
Suffice it to say that large meteors and even birds were mistaken for ball lightning, the dust of rotten, glowing in the dark stumps stuck to their wings. And yet, there are about a thousand reliable observations of ball lightning described in the literature.
What facts should scientists connect with a single theory in order to explain the nature of the occurrence of ball lightning? What restrictions do observations impose on our imagination?
The first thing to explain is: why does ball lightning occur 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 we also need to explain why ball lightning (it’s not called that for nothing) actually has a shape that is usually close to a ball.
And to prove that it is, in general, related to lightning - it must be said that not all theories associate the appearance of this phenomenon with thunderstorms - and not without reason: sometimes it occurs in cloudless weather, as do other thunderstorm phenomena, for example, lights Saint Elmo.
Here it is appropriate to recall the description of an encounter with ball lightning given by the remarkable nature observer 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 of the parameters of the lightning observed by Arsenyev are typical, such cases are rare: ball lightning usually occurs during a thunderstorm.
In 1966, NASA distributed a questionnaire to two thousand people, the first part of which asked two questions: “Have you seen ball lightning?” and “Did you see a linear lightning strike in your immediate vicinity?”
The answers made it possible to compare the frequency of observation of ball lightning with the frequency of observation of ordinary lightning. The result was stunning: 409 out of 2 thousand people saw a linear lightning strike at close range, and two times less saw ball lightning. There was even a lucky person who encountered ball lightning 8 times - another indirect proof that this is not at all as rare a phenomenon as is commonly thought.
Analysis of the second part of the questionnaire confirmed many 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.
It is interesting that even observers who saw ball lightning close often did not feel its thermal radiation, although it burns upon direct contact.
Such lightning exists from several seconds to a minute; can penetrate into rooms through small holes, then restoring its shape. Many observers report that it throws out some sparks and rotates.
Usually it hovers at a short distance from the ground, although it has also been seen 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.
What substance, for example, should ball lightning consist of if it does not fly up rapidly, like the Montgolfier brothers' balloon filled with smoke, although it is heated to at least several hundred degrees?
Not everything is clear about the temperature either: judging by the color of the glow, the temperature of the lightning is no less than 8,000°K.
One of the observers, a chemist by profession familiar with plasma, estimated this temperature at 13,000-16,000°K! But photometry of the lightning trace left on the photographic film showed that the radiation comes out not only from its surface, but also from the entire volume.
Many observers also report that lightning is translucent and the outlines of objects can be seen through it. 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 a completely black body.
The fact that ball lightning is quite “cold” is also evidenced by the relatively weak thermal effect it produces.
Ball lightning carries a lot of energy. In the literature, however, there are often deliberately inflated estimates, but even a modest realistic figure - 105 joules - for 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.
When a ball lightning explodes, a power of a million kilowatts can develop, since this explosion occurs very quickly. True, humans can create even more powerful explosions, but if compared with “calm” energy sources, the comparison will not be in their favor.
In particular, the energy capacity (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 relatively large energy in a small volume that attracted many researchers to the study of ball lightning. It is too early to say to what extent these hopes can be justified.
The complexity of explaining such contradictory and diverse properties has led to the fact that existing views on the nature of this phenomenon seem to have exhausted all conceivable possibilities.
Some scientists believe that lightning constantly receives 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 clot, such as ball lightning in this hypothesis, the existence of a standing wave of electromagnetic radiation with a very high field strength at 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 a specialist observer is located) is practically zero.
It is sometimes assumed that ball lightning is the luminous part of a channel connecting the cloud with the ground, through which a large current flows. Figuratively speaking, it is assigned the role of the only visible section of an invisible linear lightning for some reason. This hypothesis was first expressed by the Americans M. Yuman and O. Finkelstein, and later several modifications of the theory they developed appeared.
The common difficulty of all these theories is that they assume the existence of energy flows of extremely high density for a long time and it is because of this that they condemn ball lightning to be an extremely unlikely phenomenon.
In addition, in the theory of Yuman and Finkelstein, it is difficult to explain the shape of lightning and its observed dimensions - the diameter of the lightning channel is usually about 3-5 cm, and ball lightning can be found up to 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.
An example of such exoticism is the idea of D. Ashby and K. Whitehead, according to which ball lightning is formed during the annihilation of antimatter dust grains falling into the dense layers of the atmosphere from space and then being carried away by a discharge of linear lightning to the ground.
This idea could perhaps be supported theoretically, but, unfortunately, not a single suitable antimatter particle has been discovered so far.
Most often, various chemical and even nuclear reactions are used as a hypothetical source of energy. But it is difficult to explain the spherical shape of lightning - if reactions occur in a gaseous medium, then diffusion and wind will lead to the removal of “thunderstorm substance” (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 that is known to occur in air with the energy release necessary to explain ball lightning.
This point of view has been expressed many times: ball lightning accumulates the energy released when struck by linear lightning. There are also many theories based on this assumption; a detailed overview of them can be found in S. Singer’s popular book “The Nature of Ball Lightning.”
These theories, like many others, contain difficulties and contradictions, which have received considerable attention in both serious and popular literature.
Cluster hypothesis of ball lightning
Let us now talk about the 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 does lightning have the shape of a ball? In general terms, it is not difficult to answer this question - there must be a force capable of holding the particles of the “thunderstorm substance” together.
Why is a drop of water spherical? Surface tension gives it this shape.
Surface tension in a liquid occurs because its particles—atoms or molecules—interact strongly with each other, much more strongly than with the molecules of the surrounding gas.
Therefore, if a particle finds itself 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, which is why liquid molecules do not fly apart. In gases, the kinetic energy of particles exceeds the potential energy of interaction so much 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 substance” nevertheless has surface tension - hence the spherical shape that it most often has. The only substance that could have such properties is plasma, an 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 greater.
However, at relatively low temperatures - say, 1,000 degrees Kelvin - and at normal atmospheric pressure, plasma ball lightning could only exist for thousandths of a second, since the ions quickly recombine, that is, 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 great, and the ball lightning should simply fall apart. Therefore, researchers have to use potent agents to “extend the life” of ball lightning, maintaining it for 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 lightning plasma is hotter, had to figure out how to hold a ball of this plasma, that is, 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 take a different path - introduce into the model a mechanism that slows down the recombination of ions? Let's try using 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 attaches to positive ions with a negative end, and to negative ions with a positive end, forming a protective layer - a solvation shell. It can dramatically slow down recombination. The ion together with its 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, a fraction of a second and ends with the formation of a “thunderstorm substance” - similar in its properties to plasma and consisting of ionized air and water molecules surrounded by solvation shells.
True, so far this is all just an idea, and we need to see whether it can explain the numerous known properties of ball lightning. Let's remember the well-known saying that a hare stew at least needs a hare, and 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. At the end of the 60s, with the help of geophysical rockets, a detailed study was carried out of the lowest layer of the ionosphere - layer D, located at an altitude of about 70 km. It turned out that, despite the fact that at such a height there is extremely little water, all the ions in the D layer are surrounded by solvation shells consisting of several water molecules.
The cluster theory assumes 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 substance 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 go down, can be somewhat lighter than air and rise, and, finally, can be in suspension if the density of the “lightning substance” and air are equal.
All these cases have been observed in nature. By the way, the fact that lightning descends does not mean that it will fall to the ground - by warming up the air beneath it, it can create an air cushion that holds it suspended. Obviously, this is why soaring is the most common type of movement of ball lightning.
Clusters interact with each other much more strongly than neutral gas atoms. Estimates have shown that the resulting surface tension is quite enough to give lightning a spherical shape.
The permissible density deviation decreases rapidly with increasing lightning radius. Since the probability of an exact coincidence of the density of air and the substance of lightning is small, large lightning - more than a meter in diameter - are extremely rare, while small ones should appear more often.
But lightning smaller than three centimeters is also practically not observed. Why? To answer this question, it is necessary to consider the energy balance of ball lightning, find out where the energy is stored in it, how much of it is and what it is spent on. The energy of ball lightning is naturally contained in clusters. When negative and positive clusters recombine, energy from 2 to 10 electron volts is released.
Typically, plasma 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 ion field, acquire very high 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 flow is proportional to the surface area of the ball lightning, and the energy reserve is proportional to the volume. Therefore, small lightning quickly loses its relatively small reserves of energy, and although they appear much more often than large ones, they are more difficult to notice: they live too short.
Thus, 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 approximately coincides with the maximum observed lifetime of ball lightning, but significantly exceeds its average lifetime of several seconds.
The most realistic mechanism for the “dying” of large lightning is associated with the loss of stability of its boundary. When a pair of clusters recombines, a dozen light particles are formed, which at the same temperature leads to a decrease in the density of the “thunderstorm substance” and 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 seems to jump from side to side. The ejected pieces cool down almost instantly, like small lightning bolts, and the crushed large lightning bolt ends its existence.
But another mechanism of its decay is also possible. If, for some reason, heat dissipation deteriorates, the lightning will begin to heat up. At the same time, the number of clusters with a small number of water molecules in the shell will increase, 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?
When clusters recombine, the released heat is quickly distributed between cooler 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 gas heated to 10,000-15,000 degrees. There are relatively few such “hot spots”, so the substance of ball lightning remains translucent.
It is clear that from the point of view of cluster theory, ball lightning can appear frequently. To form lightning with a diameter of 20 cm, only a few grams of water are needed, and during a thunderstorm there is usually plenty of it. Water is most often sprayed in the air, but in extreme cases, ball lightning can “find” it on the surface of the earth.
By the way, since electrons are very mobile, when lightning forms, 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 helps explain 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 solvation 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 hits copper wires, 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 electrical discharges, which resulted in the appearance of luminous balls similar to ball lightning.
From what has been said, one may get the impression that thanks to the cluster theory, the problem of ball lightning has finally received its final solution. But it is not so.
Despite the fact that behind the cluster theory there are calculations, hydrodynamic calculations of stability, with its help it was apparently possible to understand many of the properties of ball lightning, it would be a mistake to say that the mystery of ball lightning no longer exists.
There is just one stroke, one detail to prove it. In his story, V.K. Arsenyev mentions a thin tail extending from ball lightning. So far we cannot explain the reason for its occurrence, or even what it is...
As already mentioned, about a thousand reliable observations of ball lightning are described in the literature. This is of course not very much. It is obvious that each new observation, when thoroughly analyzed, allows one to obtain interesting information about the properties of ball lightning and helps in testing the validity of one or another theory.
Therefore, it is very important that as many observations as possible become available to researchers and that the observers themselves actively participate in the study of ball lightning. This is precisely what the Ball Lightning experiment is aimed at, which will be discussed further.
Where does ball lightning come from and what is it? Scientists have been asking themselves this question for many decades in a row, and so far there is no clear answer. A stable plasma ball resulting from a powerful high-frequency discharge. Another hypothesis is antimatter micrometeorites.
...A barrier with a spherical surface can arise between matter and antimatter. Powerful gamma radiation will inflate this ball from the inside, and prevent the penetration of matter to the incoming antimatter, and then we will see a glowing pulsating ball that will hover above the Earth. This point of view seems to have been confirmed. Two English scientists methodically examined the sky using gamma radiation detectors. And they recorded four times an anomalously high level of gamma radiation in the expected energy region.
How is ball lightning formed?
How many antimatter meteorites are needed to provide the frequency with which ball lightning is observed? It turned out that for this, only one hundred billionth of the total amount of meteorite matter falling on the Earth is enough. This is the result of this unexpected work. Of course, the scientists’ explanation is far from final and requires verification. But does it have anything to do with ball lightning?
No! - another scientist answers and declares that ball lightning does not exist at all. That glowing ball that we see is just an illusion of our vision. In his laboratory, he used flash lamps to simulate lightning flashes with the same frequency with which they usually occur during a thunderstorm, and everyone present was surprised to “see” strange luminous balls flying smoothly through the air...
There are many hypotheses, but they have one thing in common, a common approach. Ball lightning is considered as a separate, isolated something that lives independently.
At the end of the century before last, the French scientist Gaston Plante and the Russian scientist N.A. Gezehus proposed and developed the fundamental idea that ball lightning is a system that is energetically powered by an external source. They believed that the luminous ball was associated with clouds - an invisible column of electrified air. But they could not develop and substantiate this hypothesis then, in the century before last, and it disappeared under a pile of others, in which ball lightning was considered as a separate mysterious object. And now ideas that were ahead of their time come to life on a new basis.
What does ball lightning look like? Like that. This photo was probably taken by accident. Thunderstorm, blinding branches of lightning stretching towards the Earth. And the ball rapidly flying down. A jerk, an instant stop, the ball rushes about, then again a jerk down towards the Earth, a stop again, a chaotic fast movement to the sides... Here comes the Earth. And a powerful explosion - a discharge. It is clearly visible in the photo. A unique photograph, one of a kind - the flight of ball lightning towards the Earth from a cloud.
But near the Earth, ball lightning may not explode immediately. A small ball quite often likes to travel low at first, along the surface, and here its movement is also restless. Swift jerks to the sides, a flash, then a smooth, quiet flight, again a flash and throwing... But the speed of the Earth is much less than when flying from the black sky. Now the flashes of ball lightning are almost invisible. During the time between them, the ball barely has time to travel half of its radius. And the flashes merge together into one flicker with a frequency of 10 to 100 hertz.
Here ball lightning descends to the Earth itself and, without touching it, bounces off something invisible, like an athlete from a trampoline. Having jumped up, the ball lightning descends again and again bounces off the trampoline layer. So the fireball jumps over the Earth, striking the imagination of everyone who manages to see it. Now, finding himself at the bridge above the river, he moves along them, like the fairy-tale Kolobok running away from his grandparents. Kolobok runs along the walkway and, as if afraid of falling into the water and drowning, moves not straight, but along the curved walkways, following their turns. Kolobok runs, humming his favorite song for some reason in a whisper: “I left my grandfather, I left my grandmother...”, and in the distance only “sh-sh-sh” can be heard, and eyewitnesses vouch only for the fact that they were able to hear the hissing sound of Kolobok - ball lightning.
Kolobok is modern, he is a radio amateur and not only sings his song, but also broadcasts it on the radio on long waves. Turn on the receiver, and in the range of about a thousand to 10 thousand meters you will hear the same hissing call signs... “I am Kolobok...” with the same acoustic frequency of 10-100 hertz, which can be heard directly by the ear.
A strong gust of wind blew our electric Kolobok off the bridge, and it flew across the river and field and ended up in the courtyard of a wooden house. Seeing a barrel of water, he climbed into it and... spread over the water. Now he is not Kolobok, but a pancake, but he is not the one who is fried, but the one who fries, or rather, cooks. The water in the barrel began to heat up and boiled. Having completed your work, evaporated all the water. The bun again curled up into a ball and flew across the yard, flying through the window into the hut. I flew past an electric light bulb - it flashed brightly and immediately burned out. Spinning around in the room, he flew up to the window and, having melted a small hole in the glass, slipped out and flew into the forest. There he froze for a moment near a large tree.” The masquerade is over.
A long electric spark jumps out of the ball lightning and rushes to the nearest electrically conductive surface - the wet bark of a nearby tree. A powerful explosion deafens everything around. A formidable force has awakened in Kolobok. The faintly glowing ball lightning turned into a powerful linear lightning that split the trunk of the century-old, and reminded people of the unbridled forces of nature raging during a thunderstorm.
Ball lightning is evidence of our very poor knowledge of such a seemingly ordinary and already studied phenomenon as electricity. None of the previously put forward hypotheses has yet explained all of its quirks. What is proposed in this article may not even be a hypothesis, but only an attempt to describe the phenomenon in a physical way, without resorting to exotic things like antimatter. The first and main assumption: ball lightning is a discharge of ordinary lightning that has not reached the Earth. More precisely: ball and linear lightning are one process, but in two different modes - fast and slow.
When switching from a slow mode to a fast one, the process becomes explosive - ball lightning turns into linear lightning. The reverse transition of linear lightning to ball lightning is also possible; In some mysterious, or perhaps random way, this transition was accomplished by the talented physicist Richman, a contemporary and friend of Lomonosov. He paid for his luck with his life: the ball lightning he received killed its creator.
Ball lightning and the invisible atmospheric charge path connecting it to the cloud are in a special “elma” state. Elma, unlike plasma - low-temperature electrified air - is stable, cools and spreads very slowly. This is explained by the properties of the boundary layer between the Elma and ordinary air. Here the charges exist in the form of negative ions, bulky and inactive. Calculations show that the elms spread out in as much as 6.5 minutes, and they are replenished regularly every thirtieth of a second. It is through this time interval that an electromagnetic pulse passes in the discharge path, replenishing Kolobok with energy.
Therefore, the duration of the existence of ball lightning is in principle unlimited. The process should stop only when the charge of the cloud is exhausted, more precisely, the “effective charge” that the cloud is able to transfer to the route. This is exactly how one can explain the fantastic energy and relative stability of ball lightning: it exists due to the influx of energy from the outside. Thus, the phantoms in Lem’s science fiction novel “Solaris,” possessing the materiality of ordinary people and incredible strength, could only exist with the supply of colossal energy from the living Ocean.
The electric field in ball lightning is close in magnitude to the level of breakdown in a dielectric, whose name is air. In such a field, the optical levels of atoms are excited, which is why ball lightning glows. In theory, weak, non-luminous, and therefore invisible ball lightning should be more frequent.
The process in the atmosphere develops in the mode of ball or linear lightning, depending on the specific conditions in the path. There is nothing incredible or rare in this duality. Let's remember ordinary combustion. It is possible in the mode of slow flame propagation, which does not exclude the mode of a rapidly moving detonation wave.
What does ball lightning consist of?
...Lightning comes down from the sky. It is not yet clear what it should be, spherical or regular. It greedily sucks the charge from the cloud, and the field in the path decreases accordingly. If, before hitting the Earth, the field in the path falls below a critical value, the process will switch to the ball lightning mode, the path will become invisible, and we will notice that ball lightning is descending to the Earth.
The external field in this case is much smaller than the own field of ball lightning and does not affect its movement. This is why bright lightning moves chaotically. Between flashes, ball lightning glows weaker and its charge is small. The movement is now directed by the external field and is therefore linear. Ball lightning can be carried by wind. And it's clear why. After all, the negative ions that it consists of are the same air molecules, only with electrons stuck to them.
The rebound of ball lightning from the near-Earth “trampoline” layer of air is simply explained. When ball lightning approaches the Earth, it induces a charge in the soil, begins to release a lot of energy, heats up, expands and quickly rises under the influence of the Archimedean force.
Ball lightning plus the surface of the Earth forms an electrical capacitor. It is known that a capacitor and a dielectric attract each other. Therefore, ball lightning tends to locate itself above dielectric bodies, which means it prefers to be above wooden walkways or above a barrel of water. The long-wave radio emission associated with ball lightning is created by the entire path of the ball lightning.
The hiss of ball lightning is caused by bursts of electromagnetic activity. These flashes occur at a frequency of about 30 hertz. The hearing threshold of the human ear is 16 hertz.
Ball lightning is surrounded by its own electromagnetic field. Flying past an electric light bulb, it can inductively heat and burn out its filament. Once in the wiring of a lighting, radio broadcasting or telephone network, it closes its entire route to this network. Therefore, during a thunderstorm, it is advisable to keep the networks grounded, say, through discharge gaps.
Ball lightning, “spread out” over a barrel of water, together with the charges induced in the ground, forms a capacitor with a dielectric. Ordinary water is not an ideal dielectric; it has significant electrical conductivity. Current begins to flow inside such a capacitor. Water is heated by Joule heat. The “barrel experiment” is well known, when ball lightning heated about 18 liters of water to a boil. According to theoretical estimates, the average power of ball lightning when it floats freely in the air is approximately 3 kilowatts.
In exceptional cases, for example in artificial conditions, an electrical breakdown may occur inside ball lightning. And then plasma appears in it! In this case, a lot of energy is released, artificial ball lightning can shine brighter than the Sun. But usually the power of ball lightning is relatively small - it is in the elma state. Apparently, the transition of artificial ball lightning from the elma state to the plasma state is possible in principle.
Artificial ball lightning
Knowing the nature of the electric Kolobok, you can make it work. Artificial ball lightning can greatly exceed the power of natural lightning. By drawing an ionized trace along a given trajectory in the atmosphere with a focused laser beam, we will be able to direct ball lightning where we need it. Let's now change the supply voltage and transfer the ball lightning to linear mode. Giant sparks will obediently rush along the trajectory we have chosen, crushing rocks and felling trees.
There is a thunderstorm over the airfield. The airport terminal is paralyzed: landing and takeoff of aircraft is prohibited... But the start button is pressed on the control panel of the lightning dissipation system. A fiery arrow shot up into the clouds from a tower near the airfield. This artificial, controlled ball lightning that rose above the tower switched to linear lightning mode and, rushing into a thundercloud, entered it. The lightning path connected the cloud to the Earth, and the electrical charge of the cloud was discharged to the Earth. The process can be repeated several times. There will be no more thunderstorms, the clouds have cleared. Planes can land and take off again.
In the Arctic, it will be possible to light artificial fires. A three-hundred-meter charge path of artificial ball lightning rises up from a two-hundred-meter tower. Ball lightning switches on to plasma mode and shines brightly from a height of half a kilometer above the city.
For good illumination in a circle with a radius of 5 kilometers, ball lightning is sufficient, emitting a power of several hundred megawatts. In artificial plasma mode, such power is a solvable problem.
The Electric Gingerbread Man, who for so many years has avoided making close acquaintance with scientists, will not leave: sooner or later he will be tamed, and he will learn to benefit people.
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