New ball lightning theory

Hi group.

I had an interesting idea that perhaps the reason why science has yet
to duplicate the anomalous long lifetime of natural ball lightning is
simply that the scale is wrong.

As has been seen in the various attempts to build fusion plants, large
toroidal plasmas seem to be inherently unstable, requiring continuous
correction and current/magnetic field application to keep them stable.

Therefore, it would seem unlikely that such a structure could exist in
air, in the presence of oxygen atoms and other gases.

My idea is that ball lightning is in fact a cluster of microscopic
(<1mm) plasma toroids held together by their electrostatic attraction
but kept from merging by their rotation and magnetic moment.

They are produced during the return stroke from a powerful lightning
bolt by the interaction between the collapsing plasma channel and its
surrounding magnetic field.

Each plasma toroid is a discrete and separate entity, and therefore the
ball can collide with objects yet not dissipate, as has been observed.
Additionally, being so small these toroids can find their way through
the majority of structures (window frames, under doors, through
keyholes, etc) and reform on the other side.

If there are a large enough quantity of these toroids then they might
vapourise a small hole in the glass/metal, through which the rest will
then rush through in much the same way that a crowd of people pass
through a single open doorway.

This theory also explains the apparently random motion of ball
lightning, as the motion of the cluster would resemble a lightning
"leader" following air currents and eddies, as well as responding to
local magnetic fields.

It also explains how ball lightning can "explode" causing damage. Each
one of these toroids may hold a small portion of the overall energy,
and when they begin to destabilise, a "chain reaction" may take place
where the decay of some leads to a criticality event and a sudden
energy release. This is toroid-density dependent which explains how
some "fizzle out" causing no damage.

Feel free to comment

-Andre

 

[worldcitizen]

I've heard of ball lightning being seen around the large bank of
storage batterys that were used in WWII submarines and I have seen a
moving picture on tv of an experiment to make ball lightning where they
were trying to reproduce the battery effect and had an explosion of the
battery gasses which was caught on high speed camera where they showed
about 5 or 6 very small balls of what may be lightning about an inch
or two in diameter bouncing across the floor. Does this tie in with
what you are saying?

 

[Jerry G.]

You sound like your involved in some heavy physics. A number of years
ago, I read some similar theories. About 15 years ago, I had the
experience of seening ball lightning. It was an interesting thing to
see.

Jerry G.
=======

 

Jerry G. wrote:

You sound like your involved in some heavy physics. A number of years
ago, I read some similar theories. About 15 years ago, I had the
experience of seening ball lightning. It was an interesting thing to
see.

Cool! what did it look like/lifetime/etc?

re. the post about submarines. It would certainly make sense, the
smaller balls might be a lower energy version produced by spinning
metal plasma blobs held together by electrostatics, instead of
full-blown pm=lasma toroid clusters.

Regards,
-A

Jerry G.
=======

 

[worldcitizen]

They were small and fast moving and lasted less than a second. Since
the pictures were taken with a high speed camera it is hard to say
exactly without knowing the frame speed of the camera. The actual run
time of the images was about 3 or 4 seconds and the balls were
deflected off the concrete floor at about a 10 or 15 degree angle and
were traveling at a high speed. The distance that was observed in the
video that they traveled was maybe 20 or 30 feet before passing out of
camera view. One ball in particular (the largest one) bounced only
once and about 15 feet from the camera and when it got out of view it
was maybe 3 feet off the ground. With such a limited amount of
information it is even possible that what was photographed was some
burning "shrapnel". I can't say for sure but in the program that it
was shown on they presented it as ball lightning.
Hope this helps.