Santelmo - Scientific Explanation

Scientific Explanation

Ball lightning is a natural phenomenon, or debatably, a pseudoscientific theory. It is sometimes associated with thunderstorms. It takes the form of a long-lived, glowing, floating object, as opposed to the short-lived arcing between two points commonly associated with lightning. An early attempt to explain ball lightning was recorded by Nikola Tesla on March 5, 1904.

There may, however, be special forms of plasma for which the above arguments do not fully apply. In particular, a plasma may be composed of negative and positive ions, rather than electrons and positive ions. In that case, the recombination may be rather slow even at ambient temperature. One such theory involves positively charged hydrogen and negatively charged nitrites (NO2–) and nitrates (NO3–). In that theory, the role of the ions as seeds for the condensation of water droplets plays an important role.

Ball lightning has also been seen to appear inside an aircraft, which has a metallic skin. Since the electric field cannot penetrate metal, there is a possibility ball lightning could be some form of induction phenomenon.