Electrons, being tiny relative to atoms, are able to pass through the metal shell of an aircraft after being accelerated outside of it via a lightning strike. Aaack! I hope this is Drudge's contribution and not Wu's. Microwaves are then emitted by the suped-up electrons inside where they form ball lightning. The electron-microwave-plasma pathway also explains the size of ball lightning, since the length of the electron bunch sped up by a lightning strike matches up with the typical 20-50 centimeter diameter of the resulting microwave bubble.
I'll be looking for the paper. Have a look at the video.
2 comments:
I have always been pretty sure I have seen "ball lightning" in Mississippi when I was a little kid, but I thought the learned wisdom was "ain't no sucha thing."
Now it is back again.
What is the status of "sheet lightning" from the same period?
I don't know--your fiendly google says it's lightning inside (on one side?) of a bank of clouds that looks diffused. If there was a gap in the clouds and a stroke lit up one side, through the cloud it would certainly look like a sheet.
They've discovered sprites and elves with satellite photography of thunderstorms; there are probably a few other things as well.
I remember "hearing" a meteor explode above my head as I watched the sky one night on a mountain. The sound was simultaneous with the explosion--impossible, right? The thing must have been 5 miles up. But it turns out a wire fence can pick up strong radio pulses, moving just a tad, sometimes with a tiny spark jump. I don't know for sure, but ...
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