Properties of short-living ball lightning produced in the laboratory

摘要

An experimental setup for highly reproducible generation of artificial ball lightnings is implemented. Thousands of floating glowing plasmoids 12-20 cm in diameter are produced. Research facilities for studying the plasmoids are developed. It is found that short-lived ball lightnings live for about 1 s and carry an electric charge. The lightnings are shown to have a complex structure: a central kernel containing a rich variety of hydrated ions and aerosol of decay products is surrounded by a thin negatively charged shell.