Is there a mysterious natural phenomenon "ball lightning" that light balls cherish in the air?

A light emitter floats in the air during a thunderstormAtmospheric sciencePhenomenon "Ball Lightning(Spherical power) "Although many sightings are reported, scientific data are scarce and its identity has not been elucidated.

According to the novel that the Austrian physicists advocate, it is said that only the fact that there are few pictures and video recordings and that many people are witnessing at the same time is a witness of existence, I hear that many can be explained with hallucination.

Details are as below.Mysterious ball lightning: Illusion or reality? - Presseinformation der Universität Innsbruck

"Ball Lightning" When I hear that name intuitively "sphericalThunder"You might think that. A lot of spherical power is being witnessed at the same time as a lightning strike, but an eyewitness example that it appeared in low altitude near the ground, and unlike thunder light which disappears in a moment, it took a few seconds to several tens of seconds to cross the eyes It seems to be large. There are also witnesses such as being stationary, moving in a zigzag manner. The shape is spherical or omni-shaped and the outline is blurred, the size is about 10 cm to 20 cm in diameter, and about 1 m in size. Although it is said that many colors are yellow, red and orange type, there are also reports of white and blue ones and color change on the way. Many people say they smell like sulfur and ozone.

Printmaking depicting spherical power (19th century).


University of InnsbruckPhysicist Dr. Alexander Kendl and Mr. Josef Peer are working on various types of thunderstormsElectromagnetic fieldAs a result of analyzing, a certain class of continuous lightning strikes over a long period of time is used in the medical fieldTranscranial magnetic stimulation method (TMS)It was found that it has the same properties as. A magnetic field that has sufficient strength and time-varying induces an electric field in the brain. By doing thisVisual cortexThe activity of neurons became active inPhosphene(Intraocular flashes), it seems to be thought. Thesis isPhysics Letters AIt is published in the magazine.

"In clinical use of TMS, there are many reports that patients and subjects have seen light of various colors and shapes in the field of view, and this phenomenon has already been verified," Dr. Alexander Kendl says.

A lightning striking a long distance to a close distance causes this vision with the same principle as TMS, the concept of the phenomenon "sphere electricity" is born from that eye sight story, and those who have heard about "ball microphone" have a similar vision When I experience, I think "I saw the ball ball".


Many of the scientists are not phenomena that all the eyewitnesses called "spheroid" can be explained by the same principle, but various phenomena that looks like the same are crowded with the word "sphere" I think that it is done. For that reason, all the eyewitnesses of "Ball Electric" are not considered to be vision,plasmaCases and dust that can be explained in the case where light is reflected,St. Elmo's FireThere are cases where it is reported as "Spheroid" in some cases.

"Spherical power" reproduced by the plasma in the laboratory. Although it does not necessarily resemble "spheroid" indeed, it can not explain all of the sightings by plasma.


However, Kendl and colleagues seem to be confident that many of the sightings can be explained with a vision. "While the various theories that appeared to explain the floating fireballs were" hypotheses on the assumption ", in this" vision theory ", it is necessary to accept new assumptions and guesses There is no such thing, "said Dr. Kendl.

According to Dr. Kendl, a type of lightning striking that generates a magnetic field that stimulates the brain for several seconds with continuous discharge is uncommon and it is said that it will occur only once with 100 lightning strikes, but such thunderbolts People who have seen from within a distance of 100 m seem to be able to see the glowing balls with a visual stimulus due to magnetic stimulation and experience the phantom odor.