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Re: Ball Lightning

In a message dated 06/10/99 01:19:13 GMT, you write:

<< My father was a B-17 navigator during WWII and told me he often saw ball
 lightning.  He also used to talk about "Saint Elmos Fire"- balls of
 electricity rolling around on the wings of the plane during flight. >>

Hi John,

your father probably saw the electrical discharge on the aircraft wings while 
flying through different regions of charge within the clouds.
St.Elmo's Fire is different to ball lightning because it's static and forms 
only in fairly close proximity to an object with a lower electrical 
potential, appearing as a dancing corona similar to a neon tube....sailors 
often saw it at the top of ships masts when an electrical storm was brewing.
A lightning bolt is polarised and always seeks the quickest and easiest 
discharge point or "earth", and it's a similar situation with the corona of 
St.Elmo's Fire. But ball lightning is so very different because it travels 
far greater distances freely through the air, up and down, twisting and 
turning in all directions irrespective of electrical earth, and it never 
seems to be in any great hurry to discharge itself by the easiest route.

If any ground observer mistook genuine ball lightning for a meteor fireball, 
their eye witness report would probably state that they "saw the fireball 
suddenly swing sharply to the right, stop dead and then shoot straight up 
vertically before detonating". Pick the bones out of that one Meteorobs!

Cheers,
Rob.

http://hometown.aol.com/fernlea4/forsale.html
Fernlea Meteorites,
Milton of Balgonie, Fife. KY7 6PY
Scotland. UK.
Tel: +44-(0)1592-751563
Fax: +44-(0)1592-751060
Email: FERNLEA4@aol.com

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