Re: Ball Lightning in a different lab

["Tesla list" <tesla@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Original poster: Greg Leyh <lod@xxxxxxxxxxx>

Haven't heard of any ball lightning anecdotes here at SLAC, although the 
accelerator here uses microwaves to accelerate the beam rather than direct 
high voltage, such as from a Van De Graff.
However one of the tenured professors here mentions that he witnessed a 
ball lightning event during a t-storm back in his teens, while living in 
the country.

Still the best pseudo-stable plasmoid event I've seen is Bill Beaty's 
carbon-veil-in-the-microwave demonstration.  The generated plasma balls 
appear to be about 3cm in diameter, and stay coherent while moving 
horizontally or vertically within the oven.  Their movement appears to be 
guided mostly by air convection in the oven.  Revealing the physics behind 
these carbon-veil plasmoids could produce better theories for ball 
lightning, IMO.

-GL


> Original poster: "S&JY" <youngsters@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
>
> [snip]


> "The accidental formation of ball lightning has been observed about once per
> year for the past decade inside building 985 at Hill AF Missile Radiographic
> Facility, Utah.  (my note:  It's a huge X-ray facility for X-raying the
> first stage of ICBMs to detect propellant cracks, etc.)  The volleyball-size
> fireballs drop out of the space adjacent to the high voltage supply of the
> 25 Mev linear accelerator.
>
> The ball of blue fire floats down to the floor, rolls around randomly and
> then rises again to the power-supply area where it dissipates without
> detectable damage.  Despite troubleshooting, no explanation can be found for
> this occurrence."
>
> Greg Leyh - ever heard of that happening where you work?