From: pmk@prometheus.UUCP (Paul M. Koloc)
Newsgroups: sci.physics.fusion,sci.meteorology
Subject: Re: Ball lightning
Date: 11 Sep 92 20:18:32 GMT
Reply-To: pmk@prometheus.UUCP (Paul M. Koloc)
Organization: Prometheus II, Ltd.

In article <62920910054826/0004847546NA1EM@mcimail.com> Frank Reddy <0004847546@mcimail.com> writes:
>Perhaps I missed something, but it seems that some appear to be skeptical
>of the existance of ball lightning.
>
>It IS a real phenomenon and has been produced in the laboratory.  A good
>review of the evidence for its existence can be found in BEAD AND BALL 
>LIGHTNING by James Dale Barry (Plenum, 1980 --  ISBN 0-306-40272-6).  
>Stanley Singer also wrote a nice piece in the News and Views section of
>Nature (350:108-9) on the occasion of Japanese work in creating long-lived 
>fireballs through the application of radiofrequancy discharges external 
>to the ball itself. This was one of the early theories (by Kapitza) of BL 
>formation.  The Japanese work is described in Nature 350:139-141, 1991.
 
The Japanese air RF plasmas were continuoulsly feed external power. 
They didn't have spherical shape and they were confined to the 
immediate region between or attached to the waveguide horns.  BL in 
nature is free to roam and lives a long life by virtue of its stored 
internal energy and conservative energy consumption.  To say that 
Ohtsuki's work was ball lightning is optimistic.  I have been curious 
that is such NATURAL strongly focused RF fields exist.  If it does
exist in natrue, then certainly much more numerous smaller focused 
potentials do occur (although less potential than is required for air 
breakdown).  However, there has never been any observation of such 
even though numerous occurrances would be capable of zapping the 
brains of mammals (humans) beyond a functional state.  One would 
expect bodies laying out all over the place. Further BL exists in 
metal skinned enclosures that would screen out the sources 
of such RF radiation.  


>>Earth or terrestrial Ball Lightning is probably also a source of fusion,
>>power . . .
>
>I'm not aware of any work that suggest this (which may not mean much, I admit).
>
>>The yellow color of terrestrial ball lightning is due to the formation
>>and trapping of ozone and nitrogen oxides in the external Mantle.
>
>Singer and Barry give the most commonly ascribed colors as "typically
>orange, red-orange, or intense white, less often blue, green, or yellow."  The
>ball is usually 25-30 cm wide, with much smaller (1 cm) and larger (10 m)
>also occasionally being reported.  

The yellow to red orange is a class of citings whose color only 
depends upon the amount of nitrous oxides and in the case of the 
deeper redish end, it depends upon increased levels of nitrogen 
pentoxide.  This red gas has been seen actually dripping off the 
bottom of some ball lightnings. An exception to this is that BL 
has been observed to "dye itself" red when it collides with carbon 
bearing objects, i.e. leaves.  The color spreads over the surface 
from the point of contact until the surface is covered briefly and 
then it shortly afterwards it reverts back to its default color.  

White BL are usually bright and rise in their enhanced self 
generated convection surrounding air currents.  These BL have 
suffered a loss of conductivity by a slowing of their energetic 
currents and begin to dissipate their stored magnetic energy 
rapidly.  Many of this type decay explosively. Conductivity
can drop by over four or five orders of magnitude. 

Greenies likely have copper (generated in electrical equipment).
Blue Balls are a puzzle.  They tend to be seen in low light level 
or inside enclosures where the air is quite dry. Ball lighting 
does generate a bluish halo from the fluoresence of nitrogen 
within a centimeter or two of its surface.  However this is usually 
too dim to be seen.  Perhaps it seen in cases where the currents 
are exceptionally energetic and the plasma is cool and 
electronically excited.  

> .   .          .   . .   Occasionally the balls move against the
>direction of the prevailing winds  .. .

Usually not.  However when they are coupled magnetically to nearby
iron (ferrite in the soil), current in conductors or repelled by 
generating image currents in nearby conducting sheets, they can move
adversely to air currents.  For example, through image currents a
BL within an Eastern Airlines passenger jet tracked straight along
the center isle and plane's metal skin axis.  This BL was bluish.

> .. ... and penetrate window panes without making
>a hole in the glass (which was also observed in lab experiments). 

BL would burn a hole through solid media.  RF plasmas do not.  A 
partition slowly passed through the RF node and plasma-air break-
down region allows the breakdown simply begins to form on the 
other side of the partition. To think that nebulous plasmas exist 
in atmospheric pressure air for sometimes tens of seconds and 
aren't capable of causing physical damage or can even pass through 
membranes without making holes takes a plastic imagination.  BLs
are formed within closed structures, but this is by virtue of the
lightning stroke penetrating the wall and punching a small hole or 
by flowing in through a conductor.  

>            . .           . ..         . .   .    An
>absence of warmth sometimes has been reported in incidents when the BL 
>passed close to observers; in others reports the ball may cause burns on
>property or persons,  .             ..  .  .   

One can get quite close to an extremely hot hydrogen flame without 
feeling any or much sensation of heat.  Air at atmospheric 
pressure is very insulating.  Many, probably most, of the burns 
from BL show up after a number hours, are slow to heal and in some 
cases result in loss of hair and skin (about a week later). This 
suggests the presents of high energy particles or their resulting 
electromagnetic radiation.   

> .. ..    .and (rarely) disperses with a good bang.

Actually this happens in about half of the reviewed cases.  
Some of the detonations have leveled things, .. a storage shed, 
a bathroom concrete wall leaving an enormous spherical dent in one 
end of the bathtub, shattered sizeable tree trunks (not split
as from lightning but more like from brissant dynamite). .. etc.  

>Chimera it may be.  But lightning researchers class ball lightning as a 
>real phenomenon.  It has been videotaped forming after strikes to antennas
>or TV/radio towers, although the photographic record is rife with attempted
>fakes or misidentifications.  And again, it has been formed in the lab. 

Well .. . .  continuously fed suckling air plasmas certainly have.  

>Frank Reddy
>0004847546@MCIMAIL.COM 

I note that Barry has been cited and there are a number of other 
authors who have a BL theory of their own or strongly favor an 
idea. One has to read the writings of such, guardedly.  Take my 
epics, for example.   

An excellent non-prejudice source, loaded with observations is:

Corliss, W.R., "Lightning, Auroras, Nocturnal Lights, and Related Luminous
	Phenomena", 1982. (Published and distributed by The Sourcebook
	Project, P.O. Box 107, Glen Arm, MD  21057) Tel: (301) 668-6047
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