Show ball lightning. Ball lightning is a unique and mysterious natural phenomenon: the nature of its occurrence; characteristic of a natural phenomenon

“Dear editors, please explain the incident that happened to me on August 19, 1960. I was walking from the bus to Borisovka, where my parents live, and noticed the shining headlight of a motorcycle moving towards me from the forest. But how can a motorcycle move after rain on a loamy field? She stopped and began to look carefully.

The headlight stopped at a distance of 300 meters from me. Then I noticed that there were no signs of any car. “Headlight” suddenly headed straight towards me and stood up 2...3 steps away - and I stand there, trying to figure out what it could be. Then she slowly began to move away, the distance between me and the “headlight” began to increase, and then she quickly went towards Kukshev.”

Before us is one of the many encounters with the most curious natural phenomenon - ball lightning.

This phenomenon has not received scientific recognition for a long time. They said about ball lightning that it was an optical illusion and nothing more. The French physicist Mascard called it “the fruit of an excited fantasy.” And in one of the German physics textbooks at the end of the last century it was stated that ball lightning cannot exist, since it is “a phenomenon that does not comply with the laws of nature.”

Scientists, as we see, can also be mistaken when confronted with the mysteries of nature. Moreover, they are often mistaken not because they have a “bad character”, which does not allow them to be lenient towards new scientific ideas or agree with facts that contradict their ideas. The reasons for this are much deeper, including, in particular, the desire to preserve the integrity and completeness of the dominant system of views on the structure of the world in natural science. However, knowledge is a process that cannot be stopped as long as humanity exists. This process is based on the principle: I don’t know today, I’ll find out tomorrow. A principle that is directly opposite to the religious one: I don’t know and I’m not supposed to know, since everything that is incomprehensible is miraculous - from God, a confirmation of his existence, and it is impossible to know it. Ball lightning can, perhaps, be considered a classic example of how, under the pressure of facts, the attitude of scientists towards them changed.

Gradually, a large amount of material was collected indicating that ball lightning is a reality. A variety of people have reported encounters with this still mysterious companion of thunderstorms.

In 1975, the journal Science and Life, together with the Institute of Terrestrial Magnetism, Ionosphere and Radio Wave Propagation of the USSR Academy of Sciences, published a questionnaire containing a number of questions about ball lightning and a request for eyewitnesses of this phenomenon to answer the questions. The editors have received more than a thousand letters describing cases of observation of ball lightning. The authors are scientists, engineers, teachers, pilots, meteorologists...

Judging by the stories of people who have seen this “miracle of nature,” ball lightning sometimes reaches the size of a soccer ball and even more. It moves in the air quite slowly. It's easy to follow with your eyes. Sometimes such a luminous ball almost stops, and when it reaches some obstacle, it often explodes, causing destruction. In other cases, ball lightning disappears quietly.

When this ball moves, a slight whistle or hiss is heard in the air. The color of the balls is different. Observers say that they saw red ones, dazzling white ones, blue ones, and even black ones! In addition, lightning is not always spherical - there are also pear-shaped and egg-shaped ones. Many eyewitnesses managed to photograph her.

The connection between ball lightning and ordinary, linear lightning is confirmed by a number of facts. P. Grishnenkov from Murom saw ball lightning with a diameter of thirty to forty centimeters jump out of the ground at the site of a linear lightning strike. Tomsk University student A. Sozonov saw three bright white ball lightning that separated from the middle part of the linear lightning channel and began to slowly fall. Electric locomotive driver A. Orlov described a case when ball lightning flew up when linear lightning struck a steel power line support.

University teacher A. Timoshchuk spoke in detail about his encounter with the fireball.

Lightning struck the wires near the pole. At the same moment, a yellow-green flash appeared on the wire, which began to “flare up”. A ball formed and slowly rolled along the sagging wire. Gradually it turned red. The ball jumped to the bottom wire and then fell onto the branches of a poplar tree. There was a loud crash, red sparks flew and several small balls rolled along the branches. The ball began to jump along the pavement, jumping and scattering sparks around itself. Finally, it crumbled into several pieces, which quickly went out. All this happened in about ten seconds and was observed by one other person.

Only hypotheses

We must immediately make a reservation: there is no generally accepted scientific explanation of the nature of ball lightning, but there are many assumptions and hypotheses. And not all of them deserve attention. But some assumptions about the origin of this electrical miracle are largely justified. One of them belongs to academician P.L. Kapitsa.

Ball lightning, in his opinion, is powered by radio emissions generated by thunderstorm discharges of atmospheric electricity. If, he writes, “in nature there are no sources of energy that are still unknown to us, then on the basis of the law of conservation of energy we have to accept that during the glow energy is continuously supplied to the ball lightning, and we are forced to look for this source of energy outside the volume of the ball lightning. Ball lightning occurs where radio waves reach their greatest intensity.”

The explanation of ball lightning proposed by a prominent Soviet scientist is in good agreement with many of its features; and with the fact that it sometimes rolls over the surface of various objects, without leaving burns, and with the fact that most often it penetrates indoors through chimneys, windows and even small cracks.

Doctor of Physical and Mathematical Sciences I.P. Stakhanov expressed the idea that ball lightning occurs when a significant amount of water enters the channel of ordinary lightning. When combining (recombining), water molecules stick to positive and negative ions, forming a shell around them. This shell stops the connection of ions, preventing their direct contact.

The appearance of such aqueous shells around ions in solutions is known. But can the same thing happen in gases? Apparently yes, since it is now known that in the lower layers of the ionosphere there are many similar ions associated with water molecules.

Medium-sized ball lightning (ten to twenty centimeters in diameter) can be formed from a large drop of dew caught in the channel of a lightning discharge. On the other hand, as calculations have shown, for the stability of ball lightning it is necessary that the density of its substance differ little from the density of the surrounding air.

“If ball lightning,” writes I.P. Stakhanov, - finds itself in such conditions when its temperature rises above a certain limit (for example, due to a decrease in heat exchange in a closed room), then a chain reaction of destruction of water shells begins, which leads to an explosion. Under normal conditions, lightning matter slowly “burns out” due to recombination. This leads to a change in density, and as a result, the lightning “falls apart,” throwing out pieces of matter that eyewitnesses mistake for sparks.”

Scientists are not content, of course, with collecting reliable evidence of the appearance of ball lightning. They are trying to obtain it in laboratory conditions, experimentally testing their theoretical assumptions and mathematical calculations.

Mezentsev V. A. Encyclopedia of miracles. Book I. The ordinary in the unusual. - 3rd ed. - M., Knowledge. 1988.

Human fear most often comes from ignorance. Few people are afraid of ordinary lightning - a sparking electrical discharge - and everyone knows how to behave during a thunderstorm. But what is ball lightning, is it dangerous, and what to do if you encounter this phenomenon?

What types of ball lightning are there?

It is very easy to recognize ball lightning, despite the variety of its types. Usually it has, as you can easily guess, the shape of a ball, glowing like a 60-100 Watt light bulb. Much less common are lightning that looks like a pear, mushroom or drop, or such an exotic shape as a pancake, donut or lens. But the variety of colors is simply amazing: from transparent to black, but shades of yellow, orange and red are still in the lead. The color can be uneven, and sometimes ball lightning changes it like a chameleon.

There is also no need to talk about a constant size of the plasma ball; it ranges from several centimeters to several meters. But usually people encounter ball lightning with a diameter of 10-20 centimeters.

The worst thing about describing lightning is its temperature and mass. According to scientists, the temperature can range from 100 to 1000 oC. But at the same time, people who encountered ball lightning at arm's length rarely noticed any heat emanating from them, although, logically, they should have received burns. The same mystery is with mass: no matter what size the lightning is, it weighs no more than 5-7 grams.

If you have ever seen an object from afar similar to what MirSovetov described, congratulations - it was most likely ball lightning.

Behavior of ball lightning

The behavior of ball lightning is unpredictable. They refer to phenomena that appear when they want, where they want and do what they want. Thus, it was previously believed that ball lightning is born only during thunderstorms and always accompanies linear (ordinary) lightning. However, it gradually became clear that they can appear in sunny, clear weather. It was believed that lightning is, as it were, “attracted” to places of high voltage with a magnetic field - electric wires. But there have been cases recorded when they actually appeared in the middle of an open field...

Ball lightning inexplicably erupts from electrical sockets in the house and “leaks” through the slightest cracks in the walls and glass, turning into “sausages” and then again taking on its usual shape. In this case, no melted traces remain... They either calmly hang in one place at a short distance from the ground, or rush somewhere at a speed of 8-10 meters per second. Having met a person or animal on their way, lightning can stay away from them and behave peacefully, they can circle around curiously, or they can attack and burn or kill, after which they either melt away as if nothing had happened, or explode with a terrible roar. However, despite frequent stories of those injured or killed by ball lightning, their number is relatively small - only 9 percent. Most often, lightning, after circling around the area, disappears without causing any harm. If it appears in the house, it usually “leaks” back out onto the street and only melts there.

There have also been many unexplained cases where ball lightning is “tied” to a specific place or person and appears regularly. Moreover, in relation to a person, they are divided into two types - those that attack him every time they appear and those that do not cause harm or attack people nearby. There is another mystery: ball lightning, having killed a person, leaves absolutely no trace on the body, and the corpse does not become numb and does not decompose for a long time...

Some scientists say that lightning simply “stops time” in the body.

Ball lightning from a scientific point of view

Ball lightning is a unique and peculiar phenomenon. Over the history of mankind, more than 10 thousand evidence of meetings with “intelligent balls” has accumulated. However, scientists still cannot boast of great achievements in the field of research of these objects. There are a lot of disparate theories about the origin and “life” of ball lightning. From time to time, in laboratory conditions, it is possible to create objects that are similar in appearance and properties to ball lightning - plasmoids. However, no one was able to provide a coherent picture and logical explanation for this phenomenon.

The most famous and developed earlier than the others is the theory of Academician P. L. Kapitsa, which explains the appearance of ball lightning and some of its features by the emergence of short-wave electromagnetic oscillations in the space between thunderclouds and the earth's surface. However, Kapitsa was never able to explain the nature of those very short-wave oscillations. In addition, as noted above, ball lightning does not necessarily accompany ordinary lightning and can appear in clear weather. However, most other theories are based on the findings of Academician Kapitsa.

A hypothesis different from Kapitza’s theory was created by B. M. Smirnov, who claims that the core of ball lightning is a cellular structure with a strong frame and low weight, and the frame is created from plasma filaments.

D. Turner explains the nature of ball lightning by thermochemical effects occurring in saturated water vapor in the presence of a sufficiently strong electric field.

However, the theory of the New Zealand chemists D. Abrahamson and D. Dinnis is considered the most interesting. They found that when lightning strikes soil containing silicates and organic carbon, a tangle of silicon and silicon carbide fibers is formed. These fibers gradually oxidize and begin to glow. This is how a “fire” ball is born, heated to 1200-1400 °C, which slowly melts. But if the temperature of the lightning goes off scale, it explodes. However, this harmonious theory does not confirm all cases of lightning occurrence.

For official science, ball lightning still continues to be a mystery. Maybe that’s why so many pseudo-scientific theories and even more fictions appear around it.

Pseudo-scientific theories about ball lightning

We will not tell here stories about demons with glowing eyes, leaving behind the smell of sulfur, hellhounds and “birds of fire”, as ball lightning was sometimes imagined. However, their strange behavior allows many researchers of this phenomenon to assume that lightning “thinks.” At a minimum, ball lightning is considered a device for exploring our world. At the most, by energy entities that also collect some information about our planet and its inhabitants.

An indirect confirmation of these theories can be the fact that any collection of information is work with energy.
And the unusual property of lightning to disappear in one place and appear instantly in another. There are suggestions that the same ball lightning “dives” into a certain part of space - another dimension, living according to different physical laws - and, having dumped information, appears again in our world at a new point. And the actions of lightning in relation to living creatures on our planet are also meaningful - they do not touch some, they “touch” others, and from some they simply tear out pieces of flesh, as if for genetic analysis!

The frequent occurrence of ball lightning during thunderstorms is also easily explained. During bursts of energy - electrical discharges - portals from a parallel dimension open, and their collectors of information about our world enter our world...

What to do when encountering ball lightning?

The main rule when ball lightning appears - whether in an apartment or on the street - is not to panic and not to make sudden movements. Don't run anywhere! Lightning is very susceptible to air turbulence that we create when running and other movements and which pull it along with us. You can only get away from ball lightning with a car, but not under your own power.

Try to quietly move out of the lightning's path and stay away from it, but do not turn your back on it. If you are in an apartment, go to the window and open the window. With a high degree of probability, lightning will fly out.

And, of course, never throw anything into ball lightning! It can not just disappear, but explode like a mine, and then serious consequences (burns, injuries, sometimes loss of consciousness and cardiac arrest) are inevitable.

If ball lightning touched someone and the person lost consciousness, then he must be moved to a well-ventilated room, wrapped warmly, given artificial respiration and be sure to call an ambulance.

In general, technical means of protection against ball lightning as such have not yet been developed. The only “ball lightning rod” that currently exists was developed by the leading engineer of the Moscow Institute of Heat Engineering B. Ignatov. Ignatov's ball lightning rod has been patented, but only a few similar devices have been created; there is no talk of actively introducing it into life yet.

Therefore, take care of yourself, and if you encounter ball lightning, do not forget about the recommendations.

Ball lightning is a rare and rather poorly studied phenomenon, but no less dangerous. The first mentions of it date back to the 2nd century BC, when chronicles told about mysterious phenomena that took place in Rome. Similar precedents also occurred in the Middle Ages. In the modern world, the study of the nature of the occurrence of ball lightning began in the 19th century, when D. Arago described this phenomenon. Since then, there has been a lot of research, but humanity still cannot unravel its secret, and that is why it is so afraid. We will try to figure out why ball lightning is dangerous, as well as how to protect yourself from it.

Specifics of the impact of ball lightning

This phenomenon is usually striking in its brightness. In this case, the color of lightning can be very different:

dazzling white;
blue-blue;
black;

But the most common shades are:

orange;
red;
yellow.

Ball lightning can appear both in good weather, for example, on a sunny July morning, and during a thunderstorm. Science does not fully know the exact nature of its occurrence, because it can manifest itself both in open space: inside clouds, in the air, above the ground; and in enclosed spaces, including residential buildings, through a socket or glass window. The real temperature of ball lightning is also unknown to scientists. According to their forecasts, it can fluctuate greatly: some experts believe that it is equal to 1000°C, while others think that it is a little over 100°C. Lightning can suddenly change its direction while moving. There are cases of ball lightning appearing simultaneously with ordinary linear lightning. This relationship has not yet been precisely described, but this fact exists. This variability explains the difficulties in studying ball lightning. Many experts believed that such a phenomenon did not exist at all, and that it was simply some kind of optical illusion.

People who have encountered this effect say (and scientists echo them) that the phenomenon can be divided into 2 types:

A red object descends from the sky. When it collides with anything it explodes.
It moves parallel to the earth's surface, the source of attraction for it is power plants, transmission lines and even household appliances.

Ordinary people may be unreliable, but they are the most informed source, so scientists often turn to them when studying this issue. Many people indicate that it “hisses”, and the duration of its glow ranges from a fraction of a second to half a minute. It is still a big mystery for scientists how ball lightning is formed, because we can only observe it at the final stage of its existence. Also of particular interest is its shape. That is why a number of hypotheses have been put forward regarding this phenomenon.

Where does ball lightning come from?

It is extremely difficult for scientists to describe the nature of its occurrence, since it is very difficult to capture it. It is not easy to take a photo of ball lightning, because this phenomenon sometimes lasts a fraction of a second. Some witnesses claim to have seen a long glow. Sometimes it just quietly disappears, but there are times when it explodes and you can get a real ball lightning strike.

Many important points need explanation:

Conditions of creation. After all, there is evidence indicating that she appeared not only during a thunderstorm, but also on an ordinary sunny day.
Structure of matter. Ball lightning can pass through glass, walls, openings and at the same time restore its original shape.
The nature of radiation. Is energy taken only from the surface or from the entire volume of the ball?

D. Arago, who was one of the first to become seriously interested in this issue, believed that this phenomenon occurs due to the interaction of nitrogen and oxygen with the release of energy. This hypothesis was developed by another scientist - Ya. Frenkel. He argued that the ball contained active gases formed as a result of this reaction. Based on this, we can say that the energy is located inside the object.

Physicist P. Kapitsa did not agree with this assumption. He believed that the reason for everything was additional energy in the form of radio waves resulting from electromagnetic oscillations between clouds and the ground during a thunderstorm. It accumulates and at some point begins to interact with a natural phenomenon. But this theory is also imperfect, because does not explain the appearance of ball lightning on sunny days.

Thanks to observations from the ground and air, the dimensions of existing spark charges are now well known. Their size ranges from 1 cm to 1 m or more. Most often, people have to deal with lightning with a diameter of 10-20 cm.

M. Yuman tried to repeat this process in the laboratory, but his experiment failed. In order to find out the speed of ball lightning, its structure and features, it is necessary to regularly conduct experiments. However, since all of them are very complex and costly, their implementation in practice is constantly postponed.

How to escape from ball lightning

Ball lightning poses a great danger to humans. As a result of contact with it, at best you will get a serious burn, and most often fatal incidents occur. The most important thing is not to jerk sharply and panic. If you don’t know what to do if there’s ball lightning nearby, then the simplest advice is don’t run. She is very susceptible to various air vibrations, so she will immediately follow you, and her speed is much higher.

It is necessary to try to move away from the path along which the object is moving, while it is strictly forbidden to turn your back to it. If possible, stay away from all your gadgets, and also avoid contact with synthetic materials, as they are very electrified. If you are wearing such clothes, then it is better to just freeze and stay in place. Then there is a chance that the threat will simply pass by. If this could not be avoided, and the victim has burns, then you need to send him to a ventilated room, and then wrap him warmly. It is necessary to try to help the victim by performing artificial respiration, if necessary. This will help stabilize his condition a little. However, the first thing you need to do is immediately contact an ambulance. Now you know what to do when encountering ball lightning.

It doesn’t matter whether you encounter a phenomenon on the street or in an apartment, do not try to disturb its structure in any way (for example, by throwing something inside). By doing this, you can only harm yourself, since the likelihood of an explosion increases significantly. How to escape from ball lightning in the house?

Immediately warn your loved ones or colleagues (if you are at work) about the existing threat. Also try to prevent panic. It is necessary to approach the window as carefully as possible and open the window. There is a high probability that the ball will simply come out. In this case, you need to be as collected as possible, not hesitate, but also avoid sudden movements.

Ball lightning not only easily passes through walls, but can also completely destroy even a strong building. In order to prevent this, it is better to make sure that your home is safe in advance. We recommend that you read the article “Protecting your home from direct lightning strikes. Lightning protection: lightning rod, lightning rod, grounding device.” It presents all the current security methods.

Places where ball lightning occurs

It is simply impossible to predict any specific location where it will appear, so no one is protected from such a threat. There have been cases when this effect was recorded multiple times in one area. Ball lightning in a city near Pskov was noticed several times during the year. But at the same time, the nature of its occurrence remained unknown. Scientists even tried to calculate it, but the destructive force was so great that all instruments became unusable. There is a chronicle from other places confirming the danger of this phenomenon, for example, INCREDIBLE footage of ball lightning (5 videos):

The consequences can be dire. You already know what ball lightning looks like, so you can imagine the extent of its destructive effect. At best, there will be long-term treatment. It all depends on the degree of burns received and the strength of the discharge. Hearing and vision are seriously damaged. As mentioned earlier, the flash can be blindingly bright.

Naturally, this also negatively affects the heart and muscle systems. The main rule in such cases is to provide quick and qualified assistance. This is what will help save the victim not only life, but also good physical condition. Photos of eyewitnesses of ball lightning are amazing.

At the same time, history knows interesting cases when, after contact with such an object, people discovered unusual abilities in themselves, their illnesses disappeared. But these are exceptions and miracles, but in reality, if ball lightning hits a person, then he is in danger of great trouble. The likelihood of receiving a dangerous electrical discharge remains not only while thunder is roaring, but also after. There is a video called “Ball Lightning - Unique Videos of Eyewitnesses,” in which people are amazed by the phenomenon and are not afraid to film what is happening. In this case, the usual radius is on average 10 km.

Ball lightning, the voltage of which is much higher than ordinary lightning, can permanently cripple life. Therefore, it is worth thinking about your safety right now. Products and services from the Alef-Em company will help you with this, where real professionals work who will take care of you. You need to think about ways to improve the protection of your apartment and not be afraid to face danger.

How to protect yourself from ball lightning using the services we provide

Lightning rods from Alef-Em are reliable protection in emergency situations. All you need to do is go to our website and select the products you need to protect yourself. Our sales consultants, who have extensive experience, will help you with this. You can talk to them on various topics related to the safety of your home both during a thunderstorm and when ball lightning occurs.

You already know how to behave if ball lightning has flown into your house. But by using our services, you will be able to minimize, or even avoid, this probability. The charges will be directed into the ground; such lightning rods have already been tested many times. The main evidence of their quality is not certificates at all, but grateful customer reviews.

Ball lightning can easily fly into a window, but this is excluded thanks to our systems. They consist of the following parts:

metal base;
a device located on the roof of a building;
cable acting as a connector.

It is not enough to know how to behave in the event of ball lightning; you must always be prepared for the worst case scenario. Reliable lightning protection from Alef-Em will help you avoid troubles from this natural phenomenon.

Having been working for about ten years, we managed to become real leaders in this market segment. We guarantee results that will last you for many years. The methods of our work can be found in the article “Traditional lightning protection of buildings: lightning rod (lightning rod).”

Prices at Alef-Em are much lower than those of competitors, there is a flexible system of discounts and an individual approach to each client, which will allow you to save significantly.

We work only with reliable materials, because the safety of our customers comes first.

Our website contains a lot of useful materials, where you can read articles about ball lightning. Everyone risks meeting it, but it is important to be prepared and remain just an eyewitness. By watching a video about ball lightning, you can see how dangerous it is. Contact our company, where you are always welcome. Qualified employees will provide assistance and quickly make the apartment much safer. They will show a video about ball lightning in the house, point out the main mistakes and tell you how to behave correctly in an emergency situation.

The company strives to become not just partners with its clients, but also true friends. Come to us and we will do high-quality work in the shortest possible time.

Ball lightning

Ball lightning is a luminous spherical clot 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. For example, in 1936, English newspapers talked about ball lightning, which first cut telephone wires near one house, then flew through an open window and plopped into a barrel of water standing by the window. Eyewitnesses claim that the water in the barrel began to boil.

Appearances of ball lightning

Rare occurrences of ball lightning seem to occur after being struck by normal lightning. These glowing orbs range in size between the size of a plum and a soccer ball. Ball lightning comes in red, orange, yellow or blinding white. As the ball approaches, a threatening hissing and buzzing sound is heard.

Types of ball lightning

Based on eyewitness accounts, two types of ball lightning are distinguished. The first is a red lightning bolt descending from a cloud. When such a heavenly gift touches any object on earth, for example a tree, it explodes.

Ball lightning

Ball lightning- a luminous ball floating in the air, a uniquely rare natural phenomenon, a unified physical theory of the occurrence and course of which has not been presented to date. There are about 400 theories that explain the phenomenon, but none of them have 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 unique nature of ball lightning remains open. At the end of the 20th century, not a single experimental stand had been created in 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 type of lightning that exists for a long time and has the shape of a ball capable of moving along an unpredictable trajectory, sometimes surprising to 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 ball lightning, and not some other phenomenon;
individual details given in the eyewitness account of the phenomenon.

Doubts about the reliability of many evidence complicate the study of the phenomenon, and also create the ground for the appearance of various speculative and sensational materials allegedly related to this phenomenon.

Ball lightning usually appears in thundery, stormy weather; often, but not necessarily, along with regular lightning. But there is plenty 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 suddenly appears in the air or, as eyewitnesses report, can come out of some object (tree, pillar).

Due to the fact that the appearance of ball lightning as a natural phenomenon occurs rarely, and attempts to artificially reproduce it on the scale of a natural phenomenon fail, the main material for studying ball lightning is the testimony of random eyewitnesses unprepared for observations, however, some evidence describes in great detail ball lightning and the reliability of these materials is beyond doubt. In some cases, contemporary eyewitnesses took photographs and/or video of 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 known at that time for the appearance of ball lightning. His book described 30 cases of observation of ball lightning. The statistics are small, and it is not surprising that many 19th-century physicists, 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-electric 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.

At the end of the 1940s. P. L. Kapitsa worked on an explanation of ball lightning.

A great contribution to the work on observing and describing ball lightning was made by the Soviet scientist I. P. Stakhanov, who, together with S. L. Lopatnikov, wrote in the journal “Knowledge is Power” in the 1970s. published an article about ball lightning. At the end of this article he attached a questionnaire and asked eyewitnesses to send him their detailed memories 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 Widecombe Moor
On October 21, 1638, lightning appeared during a thunderstorm in the church of the village of Widecombe Moor, Devon County, England. Eyewitnesses said that a huge fireball about two and a half meters in diameter flew into the church. He knocked several large stones and wooden beams out of the church walls. The ball then allegedly broke benches, broke many windows and filled the room with thick, dark smoke that smelled of sulfur. Then it 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 and 60 were injured. The phenomenon was explained by the “coming of the devil”, or “hell fire” and was blamed on two people who dared to play cards during the sermon.

Incident on board the Catherine and Marie
In December 1726, some British newspapers published an excerpt from a letter from one John Howell, who was on board the sloop Catherine and Marie. “On August 29, we were sailing along the bay off the coast of Florida, when suddenly a ball flew out of part of the ship. He smashed our mast into 10,000 pieces, if that were even possible, and smashed the beam to pieces. The ball also tore out three boards from the side plating, from the underwater plating, and three from the deck; killed one man, wounded the hand of another, and if it had not been for the heavy rains, our sails would have simply been destroyed by fire.”

Incident on board the Montag
The impressive size of lightning was reported from the words of the ship's doctor Gregory in 1749. Admiral Chambers, aboard the Montag, went on deck around noon to measure the ship's coordinates. He spotted a fairly large blue fireball about three miles away. The order was immediately given to lower the topsails, but the balloon was moving very quickly, and before the course could be changed, it took off almost vertically, and being not more than forty or fifty yards above the rig, disappeared with a powerful explosion, which is described as the simultaneous discharge of a thousand guns. The top of the mainmast was destroyed. Five people were knocked down, one of them received multiple 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 Richmann, a full member of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences, died from a strike by ball lightning. 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 spot remained on the scientist’s forehead, his clothes were singed, his shoes were torn. The door frames were shattered into splinters, and the door itself was blown off its hinges. Later, M.V. Lomonosov personally inspected the scene of the incident.

The case of the USS Warren Hastings
One British publication reported that in 1809 the ship Warren Hastings was “attacked by three fireballs” during a storm. The crew saw one of them go down and kill a man on the deck. The one who decided to take the body was hit by the second ball; he was knocked off his feet and had minor burns on his body. The third ball killed another person. The crew noted that after the incident there was a disgusting smell of sulfur hanging over the deck.

Remarque in 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 slow-moving fireball of explosive gas that 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 Fonvielle
The book by the French author reports about 150 encounters with ball lightning: “Apparently, ball lightning is strongly attracted by metal objects, so they often end up near balcony railings, water pipes and gas pipes. They do not have a specific color, their shade can be different, for example in Köthen in the Duchy of Anhalt the lightning was green. M. Colon, deputy chairman of the Paris Geological Society, saw the ball slowly descend along the bark of a tree. After touching the surface of the ground, it jumped and disappeared without an explosion. On September 10, 1845, in the Corretse Valley, lightning flew into the kitchen of one of the houses in the village of Salagnac. The ball rolled through the entire room without causing any damage to the people there. Having reached the barn adjacent to the kitchen, it suddenly exploded and killed a pig 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 manner. Lightning does not move very quickly: some have even seen them stop, but this makes the balls cause no less destruction. The lightning that flew into the church in the city of Stralsund, during the explosion, threw out several small balls, which also exploded like artillery shells.”

An incident 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 “ball of fire.” He recalled: “When my parents were away, my grandfather and I performed the rite of the all-night vigil in the Alexandria Church. There was a strong thunderstorm; it seemed that lightning, following one after another, was ready to shake the church and the whole world right to its foundations. Suddenly it became completely dark when a gust of wind opened the church gates and extinguished the candles in front of the iconostasis. There was thunder louder than usual, and I saw a fireball fly into the window. The ball (it was lightning) circled on the floor, flew past the candelabra and flew out through the door into the park. My heart froze 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 I was was inappropriate and unmanly... After the ball flew out, I looked at my grandfather again. He smiled slightly and nodded at me. My fear disappeared and I was never afraid of a thunderstorm again.”

An incident from the life of Aleister Crowley
The famous British occultist Aleister Crowley spoke of a phenomenon he called "electricity in the form of a ball" which he observed in 1916 during a thunderstorm at Lake Pasconi in New Hampshire. He had taken refuge in a small country house when, “in silent amazement, I noticed that a dazzling ball of electric fire, three to six inches in diameter, stopped at a distance of six inches from my right knee. I looked at it, and it suddenly exploded with a sharp sound that could not be confused with what was raging outside: the noise of a thunderstorm, the sound of hail, or streams of water and the cracking of wood. My hand was closest to the ball and she only felt a weak blow.”

Other evidence

During World War II, submariners repeatedly and consistently reported small ball lightning occurring in the confined space of a submarine. They appeared when the battery was turned on, turned off, or incorrectly turned on, or when high-inductance electric motors were disconnected or incorrectly connected. Attempts to reproduce the phenomenon using a submarine's spare battery ended in failure and 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 lightning tracking system of Uppsala University, which is located in the department of electricity and lightning, also 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 cloudy and a strong thunderstorm began. There was nothing nearby where one could hide, there was only a lonely bush nearby, which was bent by the wind towards the ground. 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 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 this point 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-place of impact-ball”. The ball also had one or two red swirls, but not so bright, they disappeared after a split second (~0.3 s). The ball itself slowly moved 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 occurred at a constant height and at a constant speed. I didn't notice any more changes in size. About three more seconds passed - the ball suddenly disappeared, and completely silently, although due to the noise of the thunderstorm I might not have heard it.” The author himself suggests 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, ball lightning appeared in the control building of the city emergency services. A ball with a two-meter tail jumped up to the ceiling directly from the window, fell to the floor, jumped up to the ceiling again, flew 2-3 meters, and then fell to the floor and disappeared. This frightened the employees, who smelled burning wiring and believed that a fire had started. All computers froze (but did not break), communications equipment was out of order overnight until it was repaired. In addition, one monitor was destroyed.

On August 4, 2012, ball lightning frightened a villager in the Pruzhany district of the Brest region. As the newspaper “Rayonnaya Budni” reports, 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 realized that she shouldn’t make any sudden movements, and just sat there, watching the lightning. Ball lightning flew over her head and discharged into the electrical wiring on the wall. As a result of the unusual natural phenomenon, no one was injured, only the interior decoration of the room was damaged, the publication reports.

Artificial reproduction of the phenomenon

Review of approaches for artificially reproducing ball lightning

Since the appearance of ball lightning can be traced to a clear connection with other manifestations of atmospheric electricity (for example, ordinary lightning), most experiments were carried out according to the following scheme: a gas discharge was created (and the glow of a gas discharge is a well-known thing), and then conditions were sought when the luminous discharge could would exist in the form of a spherical body. But researchers experience only short-term gas discharges of a spherical shape, lasting a maximum of a few seconds, which does not correspond to eyewitness accounts of natural ball lightning.

List of claims about artificial reproduction of ball lightning

Several claims have been made about producing ball lightning in laboratories, but these claims have generally been met with skepticism in the academic community. The question remains open: “Are the phenomena observed in laboratory conditions really identical to the natural phenomenon of ball lightning?”

The first detailed studies of a 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 low-pressure chamber for a few seconds.

Kapitsa was able to obtain a spherical gas discharge at atmospheric pressure in a helium environment. Additions 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 yet undiscovered 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 cause of the formation of any ball lightning is associated with the passage of gases through an area with a large difference in electrical potential, which causes the ionization of these gases and their compression in the form of a ball.

Experimental testing of existing theories is difficult. Even if we consider only 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

Based on the location of the energy source that supports the existence of ball lightning, theories can be divided into two classes: those suggesting an external source, and theories that believe that the source is located inside ball lightning.

Review of existing theories

The next theory suggests that ball lightning is heavy positive and negative air ions formed during a strike by ordinary lightning, the recombination of which is prevented by their hydrolysis. Under the influence of electrical forces, they gather into a ball and can coexist for quite a long time until their water “coat” collapses. This also explains the fact that the color of ball lightning is different and its direct dependence on the time of existence of ball lightning itself - the rate of destruction of water “coats” and the beginning of the process of avalanche recombination.

Literature

Books and reports on ball lightning

Stakhanov I.P. On the physical nature of ball lightning. - Moscow: (Atomizdat, Energoatomizdat, Scientific World), (1979, 1985, 1996). - 240 s.
S. Singer The nature of ball lightning. Per. from English M.:Mir, 1973, 239 p.
Imenitov I. M., Tikhii D. Ya. Beyond the laws of science. M.: Atomizdat, 1980
Grigoriev A. I. Ball lightning. Yaroslavl: YarSU, 2006. 200 p.
Lisitsa M. P., Valakh M. Ya. Interesting optics. Atmospheric and space optics. Kyiv: 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.
Kunin V. N. Ball lightning at the experimental site. Vladimir: Vladimir State University, 2000, 84 p.

Articles in magazines

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

Notes

I. Stakhanov “The physicist who knew more about ball lightning than anyone else”
This Russian version of the name is listed in the list of UK telephone codes. There are also variants of Widecomb-in-the-Moor and a direct dubbing of the original English Widecomb-in-the-Moor - Widecombe-in-the-Moor
A conductor from Kazan saved passengers from ball lightning
Ball lightning scared a villager in the Brest region - Incident News. [email protected]
K. L. Corum, J. F. Corum “Experiments on the creation of ball lightning using a high-frequency discharge and electrochemical fractal clusters” // UFN, 1990, v. 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 USSR 1955. Volume 101, No. 2, pp. 245-248.
B.M.Smirnov, Physics Reports, 224 (1993) 151, Smirnov B.M. Physics of ball lightning // UFN, 1990, v. 160. Issue 4. pp.1-45
D. J. Turner, Physics Reports 293 (1998) 1
E.A. Manykin, M.I. Ojovan, 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-LIVED ENERGY-INTENSING EXCITING 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.