A proposed theory of the phenomenon of ball lightning

Are Perytons Signatures of Ball Lightning?

“…Indeed, it has been suggested that a BL can serve as a natural electromagnetic cavity (Kapitsa 1955;Watson 1960;Tonks 1960;Silberg 1961;Dawson & Jones 1969;Jennison 1973;Endean 1976;Muldrew 1990;Zheng 1990;Wessel-Berg 2003). The lowest eigenmode of such a cavity has frequency…”

“…BLs are believed by many authors, although not unanimously (Smirnov 1993), to be accompanied by RF activity in just the frequency range where perytons are observed. Indeed, it has been suggested that a BL can serve as a natural electromagnetic cavity (Kapitsa 1955;Watson 1960;Tonks 1960;Silberg 1961;Dawson & Jones 1969;Jennison 1973;Endean 1976;Muldrew 1990;Zheng 1990;Wessel-Berg 2003). The lowest eigenmode of such a cavity has frequency 2 f c ∼ c/D, (1) where D is the BL diameter, and c is the speed of light.…”

“…Let us now discuss whether our model of perytons can explain how the RF energy is produced or confined long enough within the BL cavity. The existing RF models of BL (Kapitsa 1955;Watson 1960;Tonks 1960;Silberg 1961;Dawson & Jones 1969;Jennison 1973;Endean 1976;Muldrew 1990;Zheng 1990;Wessel-Berg 2003) are too sketchy to answer this question, so it may be premature to speculate on specifics. On the other hand, there is a growing experimental and theoretical evidence that most of the BL energy may be accumulated in a non-RF form, namely, in the form of internal molecular excitations or chemical energy (Paiva et al 2007;Dikhtyar & Jerby 2006;Alexeff et al 2004;Bychkov 2002;Abrahamson & Dinniss 2000;Brandenburg & Kline 1998;Zhil'tsov et al 1995;Golka 1994;Ohtsuki & Ofuruton 1991).…”