Rare ball lightning, what is ball lightning?

The first time I heard about ball lightning was in the science fiction novel Ball Lightning written by Liu, but it is science fiction after all, which casts a strong science fiction color on ball lightning. For spherical lightning, there have been sporadic records since 1838. In the early stage, people didn't believe it and thought it was fabricated. It was not until recent decades that they began to pay attention to it and realized that it was indeed a real natural phenomenon. What is the cause of spherical lightning after 182? At present, there is no definite answer, and there are several mainstream hypotheses.

Characteristics of spherical lightning

Its color is usually red, white, orange, yellow, rose red and blue, and its shape is mostly spherical, ellipsoidal or spindle-shaped, mostly spherical. The diameter is generally between a few centimeters and dozens of centimeters.

Spherical lightning usually occurs in thunderstorm days. Judging from the available data, most of the ball lightning occurred before moderate rain or heavy rain, and it happened suddenly. Sometimes it appears out of thin air more than half a meter above the ground, and sometimes it suddenly appears in the air. It usually lasts for a few seconds or more after appearing, and rarely lasts for 1-2 minutes.

The movement of spherical lightning is also diverse. Most reports point out that the trajectory of spherical lightning is uncertain, sometimes it moves smoothly along the ground, sometimes it is born from the air and falls rapidly, and it can also penetrate the glass and enter the room. Some reports even pointed out that passenger planes flying in the air had also encountered spherical lightning.

The specific report is as follows. The writer of this report is sitting on the plane. The plane was caught in a thunderstorm during the flight. With a bright flash of lightning and a loud noise, a bright sphere suddenly appeared in the cabin of the plane, giving off dazzling light. It is moving, only half a meter away from the author, and the temperature is not too high (for spherical lightning, some temperatures are extremely high, while others need to be close to feel the heat). Then the ball lightning escaped through the cabin with sound, so the author who witnessed the incident wrote a report and published it in the journal Nature published in 1969.

Let me tell you something I have experienced (true)

At that time, my relatives in my hometown all experienced ball lightning. According to his description, it was raining heavily outside, lightning and thunder, and their family was watching TV in the back room. At that time, it was not Internet TV, but cable TV. Suddenly after a flash of lightning, a bright red fireball appeared along the roof beam, which seemed to be burning. The joint between the roof beam (wood) and the wall was blackened and a large number of wall skins fell off. The red fireball moves along the wire on the roof beam, then disappears from the joint, and there is a sound in and out. This may be because it needs to pass through a gap in the wall.

Fortunately, there is no big loss. When we went there, we could only see the blackened marks on the wall.

Causes of spherical lightning:

As mentioned above, there is no unified scientific explanation for the cause of spherical lightning in the scientific community. At present, they are all hypotheses, but some hypotheses are more convincing. Why have so many years of research failed to form a unified explanation? This is because it is too difficult to get first-hand information, and ball lightning comes and goes in a hurry. The whole process usually takes only a few seconds or more, and there is very little video material left. Researchers can't just shoot with cameras. Who knows when it will appear.

For example, some hypotheses believe that lightning strikes the soil, causing the silicon in the soil to evaporate into the atmosphere and form a spherical filament network with the airflow. Vaporized silicon combines with oxygen to generate heat and emit light under certain conditions, which is spherical lightning. However, this hypothesis cannot explain why spherical lightning appears in mid-air.

One of many hypotheses may be very close to reality. This explanation points out that the relativistic electron beam generated by lightning excites microwave radiation and ionizes the surrounding air to form plasma, which is formed under the action of radiation pressure? Plasma cavitation? Cavitation binds microwave radiation, thus forming plasma spherical lightning that can be stable for several seconds or dozens of seconds. This explanation can answer why spherical lightning can be produced near the ground or even in mid-air, and can also explain various strange manifestations of spherical lightning.

The mystery of ball lightning won't last long. I believe there will be a positive answer soon. what do you think?