Ball lightning
Ball lightning is a rare, luminous, roughly spherical phenomenon reported during thunderstorms. Its physical mechanisms remain unexplained.
Ball Lightning Research: Scientific investigation of reported luminous spheres associated with thunderstorms. Researchers must explain reports that vary in duration, motion, color, and interaction with surroundings.
Coulomb's 1753 ball lightning report: A report by Georg Wilhelm Richmann describing a luminous sphere during a thunderstorm in 1753. The account is among the earliest reports linked to a fatal lightning-related event.
Lightning: A sudden electrical discharge in the atmosphere, commonly occurring within or between clouds and the ground. Ball lightning is reported in storm settings, often near ordinary lightning discharges.
Lightning sprites: Brief, large-scale electrical discharges that occur high above thunderstorms. Sprites are confirmed transient discharges, but occur far above clouds rather than as nearby spheres.
Georg Wilhelm Richmann: An eighteenth-century German physicist who studied atmospheric electricity in Russia. His death during an electrical experiment helped shape early accounts of luminous storm phenomena.
Plasma: An ionized gas containing free electrons and ions, often shaped by electromagnetic fields. Many explanations treat ball lightning as a plasma, though keeping it luminous and confined is difficult.
Ball lightning at the 1963 Pan Am Flight 214 crash: A disputed interpretation of a luminous phenomenon reported around the Pan Am Flight 214 disaster. The case shows how ball-lightning claims can become entangled with uncertain eyewitness accounts.
Atmospheric electricity: Electrical phenomena and charge distributions in Earth's atmosphere. The phenomenon is usually reported during thunderstorms, where strong electric fields and discharges occur.
Blue jets: Blue electrical discharges that shoot upward from thunderstorms into the lower stratosphere. Their upward columns and altitude distinguish them from reported compact balls.
Benjamin Franklin: An American natural philosopher and statesman whose experiments advanced understanding of electricity. His writings helped establish early scientific discussion of unusual electrical phenomena.