Report on the natural phenomenon of ball lightning. Ball lightning is a unique and mysterious natural phenomenon: the nature of its occurrence; characteristic of a natural phenomenon. Scientific and pseudo-scientific justifications
Where does ball lightning come from and what is it? Scientists have been asking themselves this question for many decades in a row, and so far there is no clear answer. A stable plasma ball resulting from a powerful high-frequency discharge. Another hypothesis is antimatter micrometeorites.
...A barrier with a spherical surface can arise between matter and antimatter. Powerful gamma radiation will inflate this ball from the inside, and prevent the penetration of matter to the incoming antimatter, and then we will see a glowing pulsating ball that will hover above the Earth. This point of view seems to have been confirmed. Two English scientists methodically examined the sky using gamma radiation detectors. And they recorded four times an anomalously high level of gamma radiation in the expected energy region.
How is ball lightning formed?
How many antimatter meteorites are needed to provide the frequency with which ball lightning is observed? It turned out that for this, only one hundred billionth of the total amount of meteorite matter falling on the Earth is enough. This is the result of this unexpected work. Of course, the scientists’ explanation is far from final and requires verification. But does it have anything to do with ball lightning?
No! - another scientist answers and declares that ball lightning does not exist at all. That glowing ball that we see is just an illusion of our vision. In his laboratory, he used flash lamps to simulate lightning flashes with the same frequency with which they usually occur during a thunderstorm, and everyone present was surprised to “see” strange luminous balls flying smoothly through the air...
There are many hypotheses, but they have one thing in common, a common approach. Ball lightning viewed as a separate, isolated something living independently.
At the end of the century before last, the French scientist Gaston Plante and the Russian scientist N.A. Gezehus proposed and developed the fundamental idea that ball lightning is a system that is energetically powered by an external source. They believed that the luminous ball was associated with clouds - an invisible column of electrified air. But they could not develop and substantiate this hypothesis then, in the century before last, and it disappeared under a pile of others, in which ball lightning was considered as a separate mysterious object. And now ideas that were ahead of their time come to life on a new basis.
What does ball lightning look like? Like that. This photo was probably taken by accident. Thunderstorm, blinding branches of lightning stretching towards the Earth. And the ball rapidly flying down. A jerk, an instant stop, the ball rushes about, then again a jerk down towards the Earth, a stop again, a chaotic fast movement to the sides... Here comes the Earth. And a powerful explosion - a discharge. It is clearly visible in the photo. Unique photo, the only one of its kind - the flight of ball lightning to the Earth from a cloud.
But near the Earth, ball lightning may not explode immediately. A small ball quite often likes to travel low at first, along the surface, and here its movement is also restless. Swift jerks to the sides, a flash, then a smooth, quiet flight, again a flash and throwing... But the speed of the Earth is much less than when flying from the black sky. Now the flashes of ball lightning are almost invisible. During the time between them, the ball barely has time to travel half of its radius. And the flashes merge together into one flicker with a frequency of 10 to 100 hertz.
Here ball lightning descends to the Earth itself and, without touching it, bounces off something invisible, like an athlete from a trampoline. Having jumped up, the ball lightning descends again and again bounces off the trampoline layer. So the fireball jumps over the Earth, striking the imagination of everyone who manages to see it. Now, finding himself at the bridge above the river, he moves along them, like the fairy-tale Kolobok who ran away from his grandparents. Kolobok runs along the walkway and, as if afraid of falling into the water and drowning, moves not straight, but along the curved walkways, following their turns. Kolobok runs, singing his favorite song for some reason in a whisper: “I left my grandfather, I left my grandmother...”, and in the distance only “sh-sh-sh” can be heard, and eyewitnesses vouch only for the fact that they were able to hear the hissing sound of Kolobok - ball lightning.
Kolobok is modern, he is a radio amateur and not only sings his song, but also broadcasts it on the radio on long waves. Turn on the receiver, and in the range of about a thousand to 10 thousand meters you will hear the same hissing call signs... “I am Kolobok...” with the same acoustic frequency of 10-100 hertz, which can be heard directly by the ear.
A strong gust of wind blew our electric Kolobok off the bridge, and it flew across the river and field and ended up in the courtyard of a wooden house. Seeing a barrel of water, he climbed into it and... spread over the water. Now he is not Kolobok, but a pancake, but he is not the one who is fried, but the one who fries, or rather, cooks. The water in the barrel began to heat up and boiled. Having completed your work, evaporated all the water. The bun again curled up into a ball and flew across the yard, flying through the window into the hut. I flew past an electric light bulb - it flashed brightly and immediately burned out. Spinning around in the room, he flew up to the window and, having melted a small hole in the glass, slipped out and flew into the forest. There he froze for a moment near a large tree.” The masquerade is over.
A long electric spark jumps out of the ball lightning and rushes to the nearest electrically conductive surface - the wet bark of a nearby tree. A powerful explosion deafens everything around. A formidable force has awakened in Kolobok. The faintly glowing ball lightning turned into a powerful linear lightning that split the trunk of the century-old, and reminded people of the unbridled forces of nature raging during a thunderstorm.
Ball lightning is evidence of our very poor knowledge of such a seemingly ordinary and already studied phenomenon as electricity. None of the previously put forward hypotheses has yet explained all of its quirks. What is proposed in this article may not even be a hypothesis, but only an attempt to describe the phenomenon physically, without resorting to exotic things like antimatter. The first and main assumption: ball lightning is a discharge of ordinary lightning that has not reached the Earth. More precisely: ball and linear lightning are one process, but in two different modes - fast and slow.
When switching from a slow mode to a fast one, the process becomes explosive - ball lightning turns into linear lightning. The reverse transition of linear lightning to ball lightning is also possible; In some mysterious, or perhaps random way, this transition was accomplished by the talented physicist Richman, a contemporary and friend of Lomonosov. He paid for his luck with his life: the ball lightning he received killed its creator.
Ball lightning and the invisible atmospheric charge path connecting it to the cloud are in a special “elma” state. Elma, unlike plasma - low-temperature electrified air - is stable, cools and spreads very slowly. This is explained by the properties of the boundary layer between the Elma and ordinary air. Here the charges exist in the form of negative ions, bulky and inactive. Calculations show that the elms spread out in as much as 6.5 minutes, and they are replenished regularly every thirtieth of a second. It is through this time interval that an electromagnetic pulse passes in the discharge path, replenishing Kolobok with energy.
Therefore, the duration of the existence of ball lightning is in principle unlimited. The process should stop only when the charge of the cloud is exhausted, more precisely, the “effective charge” that the cloud is able to transfer to the route. This is exactly how one can explain the fantastic energy and relative stability of ball lightning: it exists due to the influx of energy from the outside. So the phantoms are in fantasy novel Lema "Solaris", possessing the materiality of ordinary people and incredible strength, could only exist with the supply of colossal energy from the living Ocean.
The electric field in ball lightning is close in magnitude to the level of breakdown in a dielectric, whose name is air. In such a field, the optical levels of atoms are excited, which is why ball lightning glows. In theory, weak, non-luminous, and therefore invisible ball lightning should be more frequent.
The process in the atmosphere develops in the mode of ball or linear lightning, depending on the specific conditions in the path. There is nothing incredible or rare in this duality. Let's remember ordinary combustion. It is possible in the mode of slow flame propagation, which does not exclude the mode of a rapidly moving detonation wave.
What does ball lightning consist of?
...Lightning comes down from the sky. It is not yet clear what it should be, spherical or regular. It greedily sucks the charge from the cloud, and the field in the path decreases accordingly. If, before hitting the Earth, the field in the path falls below a critical value, the process will switch to the ball lightning mode, the path will become invisible, and we will notice that ball lightning is descending to the Earth.
The external field is much smaller own field ball lightning and does not affect its movement. This is why bright lightning moves chaotically. Between flashes, ball lightning glows weaker and its charge is small. The movement is now directed by the external field and is therefore linear. Ball lightning can be carried by wind. And it's clear why. After all, the negative ions that it consists of are the same air molecules, only with electrons stuck to them.
The rebound of ball lightning from the near-Earth “trampoline” layer of air is simply explained. When ball lightning approaches the Earth, it induces a charge in the soil, begins to release a lot of energy, heats up, expands and quickly rises under the influence of the Archimedean force.
Ball lightning plus the surface of the Earth forms an electrical capacitor. It is known that a capacitor and a dielectric attract each other. Therefore, ball lightning tends to locate itself above dielectric bodies, which means it prefers to be above wooden walkways or above a barrel of water. The long-wave radio emission associated with ball lightning is created by the entire path of the ball lightning.
The hiss of ball lightning is caused by bursts of electromagnetic activity. These flashes occur at a frequency of about 30 hertz. The hearing threshold of the human ear is 16 hertz.
Ball lightning is surrounded by its own electromagnetic field. Flying past an electric light bulb, it can inductively heat and burn out its filament. Once in the wiring of a lighting, radio broadcasting or telephone network, it closes its entire route to this network. Therefore, during a thunderstorm, it is advisable to keep the networks grounded, say, through discharge gaps.
Ball lightning, “spread out” over a barrel of water, together with the charges induced in the ground, forms a capacitor with a dielectric. Ordinary water is not an ideal dielectric; it has significant electrical conductivity. Current begins to flow inside such a capacitor. Water is heated by Joule heat. The “barrel experiment” is well known, when ball lightning heated about 18 liters of water to a boil. According to theoretical estimates, the average power of ball lightning when it floats freely in the air is approximately 3 kilowatts.
In exceptional cases, for example in artificial conditions, an electrical breakdown may occur inside ball lightning. And then plasma appears in it! In this case, a lot of energy is released, artificial ball lightning can shine brighter than the Sun. But usually the power of ball lightning is relatively small - it is in the elma state. Apparently, the transition of artificial ball lightning from the elma state to the plasma state is possible in principle.
Artificial ball lightning
Knowing the nature of the electric Kolobok, you can make it work. Artificial ball lightning can greatly exceed the power of natural lightning. By drawing an ionized trace along a given trajectory in the atmosphere with a focused laser beam, we will be able to direct ball lightning where we need it. Let's now change the supply voltage and transfer the ball lightning to linear mode. Giant sparks will obediently rush along the trajectory we have chosen, crushing rocks and felling trees.
There is a thunderstorm over the airfield. The airport terminal is paralyzed: landing and takeoff of aircraft is prohibited... But the start button is pressed on the control panel of the lightning dissipation system. A fiery arrow shot up into the clouds from a tower near the airfield. This artificial controlled ball lightning that rose above the tower switched to linear lightning mode and, rushing into a thundercloud, entered it. The lightning path connected the cloud to the Earth, and electric charge clouds discharged onto the Earth. The process can be repeated several times. There will be no more thunderstorms, the clouds have cleared. Planes can land and take off again.
In the Arctic, it will be possible to light artificial fires. A three-hundred-meter charge path of artificial ball lightning rises up from a two-hundred-meter tower. Ball lightning switches on to plasma mode and shines brightly from a height of half a kilometer above the city.
For good illumination in a circle with a radius of 5 kilometers, ball lightning is sufficient, emitting a power of several hundred megawatts. In artificial plasma mode, such power is a solvable problem.
The Electric Gingerbread Man, who for so many years has avoided making close acquaintance with scientists, will not leave: sooner or later he will be tamed, and he will learn to benefit people.
The nature of ball lightning remains unclear. This must be explained by the fact that ball lightning - a rare event, and since there is still no indication that the phenomenon of ball lightning has been convincingly reproduced in laboratory conditions, it is not amenable to systematic study. Many hypothetical assumptions have been made about the nature of ball lightning, but the one that will be discussed in this note, apparently, has not yet been expressed. The main thing why you should pay attention to it is that its verification leads to a very specific direction experimental research. I think that the previously stated hypotheses about the nature of ball lightning are unacceptable, since they contradict the law of conservation of energy. This is because the glow of ball lightning is usually attributed to the energy released during some molecular or chemical transformation, and thus assume that the source of energy due to which ball lightning glows is located in it itself. This encounters the following fundamental difficulty.
From the main views modern physics it follows that the potential energy of gas molecules in any chemical or active state is less than that which must be spent on the dissociation and ionization of molecules. This makes it possible to quantify the upper limit of the energy that can be stored in a gas ball filled with air and the size of ball lightning.
On the other hand, it is possible to quantify the intensity of radiation from its surface. This kind of rough calculations show that the upper limit of the emission time is much less than what is actually observed for ball lightning. This conclusion is now also confirmed empirically from published data on the time of cloud exposure after nuclear explosion. Such a cloud immediately after the explosion is undoubtedly a completely ionized mass of gas, and can therefore be considered as containing marginal reserve potential energy. Therefore, it would seem that it should be illuminated for a time longer than the longest existing ball lightning of a similar size, but in fact this is not the case.
Since the stored energy of the cloud is proportional to the volume (dі), and the emission is proportional to the surface (dI), the time of energy emission from the ball will be proportional to d, its linear size. The entire cloud of a nuclear explosion with a diameter d equal to 150 m is illuminated in a time less than 10 s, so that a ball with a diameter of 10 cm is illuminated in a time less than 0.01 s. But in fact, as indicated in the literature, ball lightning of this size most often lasts for several seconds, and sometimes even a minute.
Thus, if there are no energy sources in nature that are not yet known to us, then on the basis of the law of conservation of energy we have to accept that during the glow of ball lightning energy is continuously supplied, and we are forced to look for this source of energy outside the volume of ball lightning. Since ball lightning is usually observed “hanging” in the air, without directly touching the conductor, the most natural and, apparently, the only way energy supply is the absorption of intense radio waves coming from outside.
Let us accept this assumption as a working hypothesis and see how the most characteristic of the described phenomena accompanying ball lightning agree with it.
If we compare the behavior of ball lightning with a luminous cloud remaining after a nuclear explosion, the following significant difference is striking. After its occurrence, the cloud of a nuclear explosion continuously grows and silently goes out. Ball lightning remains constant in size throughout the duration of its glow and often disappears with an explosion. The cloud of a nuclear explosion, being filled with hot gases with low density, floats into the air and therefore moves only upward. Ball lightning sometimes stands still, sometimes it moves, but this movement does not have a preferred direction relative to the ground and is not determined by the direction of the wind. We now show that this characteristic difference is well explained by the hypothesis put forward.
It is known that effective absorption of electromagnetic oscillations by an ionized gas cloud - plasma - can only occur at resonance, when the natural period of electromagnetic oscillations of the plasma coincides with the period of the absorbed radiation. At those ionization intensities that are responsible for the bright glow of a lightning ball, the resonance conditions are entirely determined by its external dimensions.
If we assume that the absorbed frequency corresponds to the natural oscillations of the sphere, then the length K of the absorbed wave must be approximately equal to four diameters of ball lightning (more precisely, l = 3.65d). If in the same volume the ionization of the gas is weak, then, as is known, the period of plasma oscillations is mainly determined by the degree of ionization, and the corresponding resonant wavelength will always be greater than that determined by the dimensions of the ionized volume and, as we indicated, equal to 3. 65d.
When ball lightning occurs, the absorption mechanism can be imagined as follows: at first there is a small volume of plasma compared to (p/6) dі, but if its ionization is weak, then resonance with a wavelength l = 3.65d will still be possible and will occur effective absorption of radio waves. Due to this, ionization will increase, and with it the initial volume of the sphere, until it reaches diameter d. Then the resonant nature of the absorption process will be determined only by the shape of the ball lightning, and this will lead to the size of the ball lightning sphere becoming stable.
Indeed, let us assume that the intensity of the absorbed vibrations increases; then the temperature of the ionized gas will increase slightly and the sphere will inflate, but such an increase will take it out of resonance and the absorption of electromagnetic oscillations will decrease, the sphere will cool down and return to dimensions close to resonance. This way we can explain why the observed diameter of ball lightning remains constant during the glow process.
The sizes of observed ball lightning lie in the range from 1 to 27 cm. According to our hypothesis, these values, multiplied by four, will give the wave range that is responsible in nature for the creation of ball lightning. The most commonly observed diameters of ball lightning from 10 to 20 cm correspond to wavelengths from 35 to 70 cm.
The places most favorable for the formation of ball lightning will obviously be the areas where radio waves reach their greatest intensity. Such places will correspond to voltage antinodes, which are obtained with a variety of possible interference phenomena. Thanks to the increased voltage electric field in the antinodes, their position will fix the possible locations of ball lightning. This mechanism leads to the fact that ball lightning will move with the movement of the antinode, regardless of the direction of the wind or convection air currents.
As a possible example of such a fixed position of ball lightning, consider the case when radio waves fall on the conducting surface of the earth and are reflected. Then, due to interference, standing waves are formed at distances equal to K, the wavelength multiplied by 0.25; 0.75; 1.25; 1.75; etc., antinodes stationary in space will be formed, in which the electric field voltage doubles compared to the incident wave. Near these surfaces, due to the increased voltage, there will be favorable conditions both to create an initial breakdown and to further develop and maintain ionization in the cloud forming ball lightning. Thus, absorption of electromagnetic vibrations by ionized gas can only occur on certain surfaces parallel to the topography of the earth. This will fix the position of ball lightning in space.
This mechanism explains why ball lightning is usually created at a short distance from the ground and often moves in horizontal planes. In this case, the shortest distance between the center of ball lightning and the conducting surface will be equal to 1/4 of the wavelength and, therefore, the gap between the reflecting surface and the edge of the ball should be approximately equal to its radius.
With intense oscillations, it is quite possible for individual ball lightning to form in a number of antinodes, at a distance of half a wavelength from each other. Such chains of ball lightning have been observed, they are called “bead” lightning and have even been filmed.
Our hypothesis may also explain why ball lightning sometimes disappears with an explosion that causes no damage. When the power supply suddenly stops, then at small sizes the cooling of the ball will occur so quickly that a sphere of rarefied air is formed, which, when quickly filled, produces a shock wave of low strength. When the energy is slowly released, the extinction will be a calm and silent process.
The hypothesis we have put forward can provide a satisfactory explanation for perhaps the most incomprehensible of the properties of ball lightning - its penetration into a room through windows, cracks and, more often, through chimneys. Once inside the room, the luminous ball either hovers or runs along the wires for several seconds. There are so many such cases described that their reality is beyond doubt.
From our point of view, a very interesting case was when ball lightning flew into an airplane crossing a thundercloud at an altitude of 2800 m. Our hypothesis explains all these phenomena by the fact that the penetration of ball lightning into closed rooms occurs due to the fact that they follow the path of short-wave electromagnetic oscillations, propagating either through holes or through chimneys or wires as waveguides. Typically, the size of the chimney exactly corresponds to the critical section of the waveguide in which waves with a length of up to 30-40 cm can freely propagate, which is in accordance with the observed sizes of ball lightning penetrating into the room.
Thus, the hypothesis about the origin of ball lightning due to short-wave electromagnetic oscillations can explain not only a number of other known and unknown phenomena associated with ball lightning, such as: its fixed dimensions, sedentary position, the existence of chains, a blast wave upon disappearance, - but also her entry into the premises.
Here the question should be raised: isn’t the phenomenon of a smoldering brush-shaped glow, which has long been observed in nature, called “St. Elmo’s fire,” also due to electromagnetic oscillations, but of weaker powers? Until now, this glow was explained by the flow of charges from the tip, which occurs due to the constant voltage that arises at large potential differences between the ground and the cloud. This explanation was quite natural as long as this glow was observed on the ground, where a closed path could be indicated direct current, but now cases have been described when “St. Elmo’s lights” are observed for a long time on the fuselages of flying aircraft. Therefore, it is possible that here, too, the hypothesis we have put forward can help solve this difficulty.
Although the hypothesis put forward successfully resolves a number of basic difficulties in understanding the process of ball lightning, it should still be pointed out that this still does not completely resolve the issue, since it is still necessary to show the existence in nature of electromagnetic oscillations that feed ball lightning. Here, first of all, it is necessary to answer a naturally arising question: why, during a thunderstorm, the radiation of electromagnetic oscillations in the region of the wavelength that is needed to create ball lightning have not yet been described in the literature?
While attention has not yet been directed to detecting these waves during a thunderstorm, we think we can assume the following. Since ball lightning is a rare phenomenon, it is natural to assume that the occurrence of corresponding radio waves also rarely occurs; in addition, it is even more rare to expect them to hit receiving devices in that short-wave region of radio waves from 35 to 70 cm, which is still relatively small used. Therefore, as the next step in testing the assumptions made, it is necessary to develop an appropriate experimental method observations, try to detect radio emissions in the specified short-wave range during a thunderstorm.
As for the source of these radio waves, there appear to be two facts in observations of ball lightning that may help shed light on the mechanism of their occurrence. One of them is that ball lightning most often occurs towards the end of a thunderstorm; the second is that ball lightning is immediately preceded by ordinary lightning.
The first fact indicates that the presence of ionized air helps to create radio waves, and the second indicates that the causative agent of these oscillations is a lightning discharge. This leads to the natural assumption that the source of radio waves is an oscillatory process occurring in the ionized atmosphere either near a cloud or near the ground. In the latter case, if the source is located near the ground, then the area covered by intense radio emission will be limited and will be directly adjacent to the place where the ball lightning is located. The intensity of radio oscillations can quickly decrease with distance from this place, and therefore sensitive equipment will be needed for observation at significant distances. If radio waves are emitted by the thundercloud itself, then they will cover large areas and their detection even by a low-sensitive receiver will not be difficult.
Finally, as a second possible direction for experimental verification of the hypothesis put forward, it is necessary to point out the possibility of creating a discharge similar to ball lightning in laboratory conditions. To do this, obviously, you need to have a powerful source of radio waves of continuous intensity in the decimeter range and be able to focus them in a small volume. With a sufficient electric field voltage, conditions should arise for an electrodeless breakdown, which, through ionization resonance absorption by the plasma, should develop into a luminous ball with a diameter equal to approximately a quarter of the wavelength.
Everyone knows how to behave during a severe thunderstorm, and almost no one is afraid of ordinary lightning. But have you ever encountered ball lightning? What is this phenomenon? How dangerous are they?
Appearance
Ball lightning appears before us in in different forms, however, it is always quite easy to recognize it. Most often in nature, ball lightning occurs in the form of a luminous ball.
But it happens that they take the form of a mushroom, a pear, or a drop. There were also exotic ball lightnings that took the shape of a donut or pancake.
The color range of ball lightning is striking in its diversity: from black to transparent, but bright, saturated orange, yellow and red colors are still in the lead. Moreover, sometimes it is difficult to guess the color of ball lightning because it changes it like a chameleon.
Their sizes can also be completely different - from a few centimeters to several meters. But most often you can see plasma balls with a diameter of about 20 cm.
Scientists say that the temperature of ball lightning can be from 100 to 1000 degrees. The mystery of the phenomenon is that, being close to the lightning at arm's length, people did not feel any heat emanating from the lightning, although, logically, they should have received burns.
Behavior
The behavior of ball lightning does not lend itself to any scientific justification. They inexplicably seep through sockets in houses, make their way through the slightest cracks, while changing their shape, depending on the size of the crack. It is impossible to predict the path of ball lightning.
They can calmly hang in one place a few meters from the ground, or they can rush somewhere at a speed of 10 m/s. When near an animal or person, they can circle around curiously and not cause any harm, or they can attack and burn to death.
Another interesting fact– the bodies of people killed by ball lightning do not decompose for a very long time, and no traces are found on them. Some scientists believe that lightning stops time in the body.
Scientific and pseudo-scientific justifications
In science, there are a huge number of hypotheses about the origin and activity of ball lightning. In laboratories it is possible to create objects similar to them - plasmoids. But no one has yet been able to give a logical explanation for this phenomenon.
Previously it was believed that mandatory conditions for the occurrence of ball lightning is rainy weather and the presence of ordinary linear lightning. Some scientists explain the appearance of lightning by the fact that during a thunderstorm, short-wavelength waves appear between the clouds and the surface of the earth. electromagnetic vibrations. However, when ball lightning began to appear even in sunny, dry weather, this assumption was dispelled.
Of interest is the theory developed by New Zealand scientists. They conducted an experiment and found that when ordinary lightning strikes soil that contains silicates and organic carbon, is formed into a ball of silicon fibers and silicon carbide. When these fibers oxidize, the ball begins to glow and heat up. But so far this theory has not found its final confirmation.
Absence scientific justification The appearance of ball lightning gives impetus to the development of pseudo-scientific theories.
So, there are an incredible variety of fictions and guesses about ball lightning. Some consider them to be special devices designed to monitor life on Earth. Some people claim that lightning is an extraterrestrial being.
Tips: what to do when encountering ball lightning
1. The main rule: when you detect ball lightning, do not make sudden movements. The air flow can pull it along with it, so don't run! You can still escape from ball lightning by car, but not on your own.
2. Do not turn your back on lightning, try to get out of its path and stay as far away from it as possible.
3. While in the apartment, open the window. As a rule, it will fly out.
4. You cannot throw anything at ball lightning, it can explode like a bomb, and then burns are inevitable.
5. If lightning does hit a person who subsequently loses consciousness, it is necessary to take him out into the air, wrap him in a blanket and immediately perform artificial respiration before the ambulance arrives.
Remember that in daily life Devices for removing ball lightning have not yet been introduced, so be careful and follow safety rules.
Ball lightning. This mysterious phenomenon nature is still very little studied. There are many cases when this clot of crushing energy enters our homes. It penetrates into the room through the slightest cracks, chimneys and even through smooth glass. Ball lightning is a fleeting phenomenon, but sometimes it can be observed within 20 seconds.
Ball lightning is considered special kind lightning, which is a luminous fireball floating through the air (sometimes shaped like a mushroom, drop or pear).
When ball lightning enters an apartment, it behaves differently: it either goes out or “splashes” with a crash. Its sizes vary. The most common lightning is approximately 15 cm in size. But there are cases when it reaches 1 meter or more in diameter. When contacting a person, the matter usually ends tragically. But in in rare cases this doesn't happen. Not long ago, such a contact occurred in China: surprisingly, having hit the same person twice, she did not kill him (the incident was shown on TV).
A case of such an encounter with ball lightning is described: in Zimbabwe (Africa), a young woman with such contact escaped with only the loss of her dress and hairstyle. In Pyatigorsk, a roofing worker burned his hands while trying to brush aside a small ball that seemed to be hovering above him. I had to undergo treatment for a long time, because such burns do not heal for a long time. But there are many more cases that end tragically. In the summer there was an incident when a young man who was tending public cattle in a pasture was killed. Ball lightning destroyed him along with his horse.
There have been cases where planes encounter these fireballs. But so far no deaths of the aircraft or crew have been recorded (only minor damage to the skin was noted).
What does ball lightning look like?
Ball lightning comes in different shapes: round, oval, cone-shaped, etc. The color of lightning also has a full range of colors. There are red with different shades, green, orange, white. Some types of lightning have a luminous "tail". What kind of natural phenomenon is this? Scientists say that ball lightning is a plasma clot whose temperature can be 30,000,000 degrees. This is higher than the solar temperature at its center.
Why does this happen, what is the nature of its occurrence. Observations of these “balls” appearing out of nowhere were noted - on a sunny, clear day, mysterious orange balls moved close to the surface, in a place where there were no high-voltage wires or other types of energy sources. Maybe they arise deep in the bowels of our planet, maybe in its faults. In general, this mysterious phenomenon has not yet been studied by anyone. Our scientists know more about the origin of stars than about what happens under their noses from century to century.
Types of ball lightning
Based on eyewitness accounts, there are two main types of ball lightning:
- The first is red ball lightning descending from a cloud. When such a heavenly gift touches any object on earth, for example a tree, it explodes. Interesting: ball lightning can be the size of a football, it can hiss and buzz threateningly.
- Another type of ball lightning travels for a long time along earth's surface and glows with a bright white light. The ball is attracted to good conductors of electricity and can touch anything - the ground, a power line or a person.
Lifetime of ball lightning
Ball lightning lasts from several seconds to several minutes. Why does this happen?
One theory states that the ball is a small copy of a thundercloud. This is how it probably happens. There are always tiny specks of dust in the air. Lightning can impart an electrical charge to dust particles in a specific area of air. Some dust particles are charged positively, others - negatively. In a further light show lasting up to many seconds, millions of small lightning bolts connect oppositely charged dust particles, creating in the air the image of a sparkling fireball - ball lightning.
We live in the most interesting times - it’s the 21st century, high tech subject to human control and are used everywhere and in scientific work, and in everyday life. A set of people wishing to settle on the Red Planet is being researched and recruited. Meanwhile, today there are various mechanisms of which are still not studied. Such phenomena include ball lightning, which is of genuine interest to scientists around the world.
The first documented case of ball lightning took place in 1638 in England, in one of the churches in Devon County. As a result of the outrages of the huge fireball, 4 people were killed and about 60 were injured. Subsequently, new reports of similar phenomena periodically appeared, but there were few of them, since eyewitnesses considered ball lightning an illusion or an optical illusion.
The first generalization of cases of unique natural phenomenon produced by the Frenchman F. Arago in the middle of the 19th century, his statistics collected about 30 pieces of evidence. The increasing number of such meetings made it possible to obtain, based on the descriptions of eyewitnesses, some characteristics inherent in the heavenly guest.
Ball lightning is an electrical phenomenon that moves in the air in an unpredictable direction, glowing, but not emitting heat. On this general properties the particulars characteristic of each case end and begin.
This is explained by the fact that the nature of ball lightning is not fully understood, since until now it has not been possible to study this phenomenon in laboratory conditions or to recreate a model for study. In some cases, the diameter of the fireball was several centimeters, sometimes reaching half a meter.
Photos of ball lightning fascinate with their beauty, but the impression of a harmless optical illusion is deceptive - many eyewitnesses received injuries and burns, some became victims. This happened to the physicist Richman, whose work on experiments during a thunderstorm ended in tragedy.
For several hundred years, ball lightning has been the object of study by many scientists, including N. Tesla, G. I. Babat, B. Smirnov, I. P. Stakhanov and others. Scientists have put forward different theories of the origin of ball lightning, of which there are over 200.
According to one version, the electromagnetic wave formed between the earth and the clouds reaches a critical amplitude at a certain moment and forms a spherical gas discharge.
Another version is that ball lightning consists of high-density plasma and contains its own microwave radiation field. Some scientists believe that the fireball phenomenon is the result of clouds focusing cosmic rays.
Most cases of this phenomenon were recorded before and during a thunderstorm, so the most relevant hypothesis is the emergence of an energetically favorable environment for the appearance of various plasma formations, one of which is lightning.
Experts agree that when meeting a heavenly guest, you need to adhere to certain rules of behavior. The main thing is not to make sudden movements, not to run away, and try to minimize air vibrations.