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Ball Lightning: An Unsolved Problem in Atmospheric Physics 1999th Edition

by Mark Stenhoff (Author)

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Down comes a deluge of sonorous hail, Or prone-descending rain. Wide-rent, the clouds Pour a whole flood, and yet, its flame unquenched, Th’unconquerable lightning struggles through. Ragged and fierce, or in red whirling balls, And fires the mountains with redoubled rage. Black from the stroke, above, the smould’ring pine Stands a sad shattered trunk; and, stretched below, A lifeless group the blasted cattle lie. James Thompson, “The Seasons” (1727) have been investigating ball lightning for more than two decades. I published a ball lightning report in Nature in 1976 that received worldwide publicity and I consequently many people wrote to me with accounts of their own experiences. Within a very short time, I had accumulated about 200 firsthand accounts, and the file has continued to grow steadily since then. Several things impressed me. Few of those who wrote to me had any detailed foreknowledge of ball lightning at the time of their observation. Nonetheless, once reports of other phenomena such as St. Elmo’s fire had been eliminated, the remaining descriptions were remarkably consistent. Furthermore, nearly all who contacted me were keen to have an explanation of what they had seen and seemed entirely sincere.

ISBN-10

0306461501
ISBN-13

978-0306461507
Edition

1999th
Publisher

Springer
Publication date

October 31, 1999
Language

English
Dimensions

9.26 x 6.36 x 1.05 inches
Print length

365 pages
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Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Formerly the scientific Director of the Ball Lightning Division of the Tornado and Storm Research Organisation (TORRO), Mark Stenhoff has been investigating ball lightning for more than two decades. After publishing a ball lightning report in Nature in 1976 that received worldwide publicity, Stenhoff rapidly accumulated over 200 first-hand accounts of personal experiences a collection that has continued to grow ever since.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Springer; 1999th edition (October 31, 1999)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 365 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0306461501
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0306461507
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.58 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 9.26 x 6.36 x 1.05 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #4,273,471 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #351 in Atomic & Nuclear Physics
- #565 in Geophysics (Books)
- #2,623 in Rivers in Earth Science

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L. THOMPSON

excellent

Reviewed in the United States on March 21, 2010

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This book is by far presents the best un-bias scientific analysis of ball lightning since the 1900's. The book is worth the price. I was hesitant at first to make the big purchase, but I don't regret it one bit any more. Must buy if you want scientific analysis of ball lightning without all the crap from other sources.

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John Walker

A centuries-old scientific mystery—if it exists

Reviewed in the United States on February 9, 2020

Reports of ball lightning--glowing spheres of light which persist for some number of seconds, usually associated with cloud to ground lightning strikes during thunderstorms, date back to the classical Greeks. Since 1838, when physicist and astronomer Dominique Arago published a survey of twenty reports of ball lightning, a long list of scientists, many eminent, have tried their hands at crafting a theory which might explain such an odd phenomenon yet, at the start of the twenty-first century ball lightning remains, as Arago said in 1854, "One of the most inexplicable problems of physics today."

Well, actually, ball lightning only poses problems to the physics of yesterday and today if it, you know, exists, and the evidence that it does is rather weak, as this book demonstrates. (Its author does come down in favour of the existence of ball lightning, and wrote the 1976 Nature paper which helped launched the modern study of the phenomenon.) As of the date this book was published, not a single unambiguous photograph, movie, or video recording of ball lightning was known to exist, and most of the "classic" photographs illustrated in chapter 9 are obvious fakes created by camera motion and double exposure. It is also difficult when dealing with reports by observers unacquainted with the relevant phenomena to sort out genuine ball lightning (if such exists) from other well-documented and understood effects such as corona discharges (St. Elmo's fire), that perennial favourite of UFO debunkers: ignis fatuus or swamp gas, and claims of damage caused by the passage of ball lightning or its explosive dissipation from those produced by conventional lightning strikes. See the author's re-casting of a lightning strike to a house which he personally investigated into "ball lightning language" on pp. 105-106 for an example of how such reports can originate.

Still, after sorting out the mis-identifications, hoaxes, and other dross, a body of reports remains, some by expert observers of atmospheric phenomena, which have a consistency not to be found, for example, in UFO reports. A number of observations of ball lightning within metallic aircraft fuselages are almost identical and pose a formidable challenge to most models. The absence of unambiguous evidence has not in any way deterred the theoretical enterprise, and chapters 11-13 survey models based on, among other mechanisms, heated air, self-confining plasma vortices and spheroids, radial charge separation, chemical reactions and combustion, microwave excitation of metastable molecules of atmospheric gases, nuclear fusion and the production of unstable isotopes of oxygen and nitrogen, focusing of cosmic rays, antimatter meteorites, and microscopic black holes. One does not get the sense of this converging upon a consensus. Among the dubious theories, there are some odd claims of experimental results such as the production of self-sustaining plasma balls by placing a short burning candle in a kitchen microwave oven (didn't work for me, anyway--if you must try it yourself, please use common sense and be careful), and reports of producing ball lightning sustained by fusion of deuterium in atmospheric water vapour by short circuiting a 200 tonne submarine accumulator battery. (Don't try this one at home, kids!)

The book concludes with the hope that with increasing interest in ball lightning, as evidenced by conferences such as the International Symposia on Ball Lightning, and additional effort in collecting and investigating reports, this centuries-old puzzle may be resolved within this decade. I'm not so sure--the UFO precedent does not incline one to optimism. For those motivated to pursue the matter further, a bibliography of more than 75 pages and 2400 citations is included.

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Sina

Still a mysterious phenomenon

Reviewed in the United States on July 11, 2000

Ball lightning obviously is an extremely rare event. As in the case of other rare phenomena, the investigator is dependent on reports of casual witnesses, because systematic observing programs are not possible. The reports collected over many years include reliable as well as doubtful information. Stenhoff gives a good sample of reports, photos and descriptions. These clearly show the range of observed phenomena and the questions which remain open. The summary of sightings and the review of theories to explain the variety of observations makes the book very valuable, particularly as there is no comparable recent publication on this topic. I also appreciate the list of references (up to 1998 publications) which allows to look for details regarding reports as well as theoretical papers. All together: highly recommended.

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