What Causes The Lightning Ball Phenomenon ?
Among the different types of lightning, ball lightning is the atmospheric phenomenon around which the greatest number of strange stories crystallize. Many researchers believe that this is an illusion, however the witnesses are too numerous to be able to refute their claims.
Creation of plasma balls in Japan
A lightning bolt is a discharge in a light arc which lasts only a brief instant, but which has extreme electrical power and a voltage of around 100 million volts. Lightning discharges between clouds of different voltages or from a cloud to the ground. During a thunderstorm, it is advisable not to take refuge under a tree, in a cave or to stand near metallic objects. Ball lightning is a form of enigmatic lightning, the existence of which is controversial. The explanations given evoke an optical illusion, a glare perceived as a bright spot of light in the afterglow.
Some Japanese researchers believe that the lightning balls are in fact plasma balls. But this assumption is often refuted, because the plasma balls show a clear tendency to rise, like hot air balloons. However, this is not the case with ball lightning. Russian physicist Pjotr Kapitsa believes that lightning balls are discharges of electrons, generated by static ultrashort waves of unknown origin. In any case, they appear between the earth and the clouds. The two New Zealanders John Abrahamson and James Dinnis believe ball lightning to be loose pellets of burning silicon, caused by forked lightnings.
The duration of lightning balls can be thirty times longer than that of other lightnings
According to testimonies, ball lightning comes in the form of luminous balls of 20 centimeters in diameter, which can adopt a glow of various colors, green, blue, yellow, orange and red being the most frequent. However, we must rely only on the accounts of witnesses because photos of lightning balls are rare and those that exist are, by the nature of things, unusable. Snapshots of light phenomena are always difficult to achieve and provide little information, because they can represent many things and therefore have no proof value. The secret surrounding ball lightning is therefore difficult to unravel.
A lightning bolt lasts longer than a normal flash: between 1 and 8 seconds, knowing that some testimonies even speak of 30 seconds. Their lifespan increases with their size and decreases with the brightness. Balls with a very marked shade of blue or orange visibly last longer than lightning bolts in other colors. Ball lightning penetrates walls and windows without causing damage, but moves at a relatively slow speed, only 2 to 3 meters per second. Its trajectory remains parallel to the ground, but some occasionally jump upwards.
Energy equivalent to that of a firefly
For a long time it was said that ball lightning could be very dangerous. It was even thought at one time that the phenomena of spontaneous combustion could be linked to it. However, these balls do not seem to represent a great danger, some researchers even going so far as to say that their energy was equivalent to that of a firefly. A witness even claims to have repelled a lightning ball with both hands, without being injured.
This lightning ball phenomenon has been observed at all times and around the world. Scientists do not doubt their existence, but are not yet able to provide an explanation.
Testimony of Brad Jagger, United States
“When I was nine, my family and I visited Pittsburgh. In the parking lot of our hotel, I suddenly saw a ball of light flying towards me. It had the appearance of a comet, the size of a volleyball and dragged behind it a luminous wake. It hit me on the arm, leaving a V-shaped burn.
The most amazing point was that the ball of light hit the asphalt and bounced upwards, arrived at a 45 degree angle and disappeared with a 45 degree angle. Today I am 36 years old and I still have the scar on my arm.”
