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Researchers Unravel Mystery of Lightning Diversity
coondoggie writes to tell us that researchers from Penn State and New Mexico Tech have unraveled the mystery of lightning diversity. A new "Lightning Mapping Array" has been able to show detailed models on how lightning acts. "About 90% of lightning occurs inside clouds and is not visible to the casual observer, researchers said. The researchers wondered if lightning that appears within clouds and the lightning that escapes upward or downward shared the same development mechanisms, researchers said. Lightning forms in clouds when different areas of the cloud become either positively or negatively charged. Once the electric field near a charged area exceeds a certain propagation level, lightning occurs. The type of lightning depends on where the charge builds and where the imbalance in charge exists in the clouds. The mechanism behind different types of lightning is what the new model shows, researchers said."
Water molecules evaporating from the trees, vegetation, lakes and oceans carry an ionic charge up to the clouds with them. Turbulence within the clouds also help charge build up.
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It has been reproduced in submarine battery switches on demand, occasionally during shorts in electrical equipment, and of course in Tesla's big coil. He considered it a big nuisance. AFAIK, no one has ever duplicated Tesla's production of Ball Lightning.
There are all sorts of theories. One is that plasma is held in place by the presence of RF radiation somehow induced by lightning. Another theory is that is chemically based upon NO2, so its not electrical at all- other than that the lightning produces the NO2.
None of the theories currently address the eyewitness accounts of the balls going through walls, or just suddenly popping out of nowhere in peoples' houses.
There is an entire book called "Ball Lightning: An Unsolved Problem in Atmospheric Physics" by Mark Stenhoff. Available from Amazon by special order or used copies are available. Its really pricey $160, so I would go for a used copy that is $40 or so.