ABSTRACT
Ball lightning is a fireball or plasmoid observed as a luminous sphere, or occasionally as a cylindrical form called bead lightning, in the atmosphere or inside a plane, a submarine, or a house. In contrast to the conventional lightning discharge, ball lightning, sometimes called kugelblitz, is rarely and randomly observed, often in the vicinity of thunderstorms, and its nature and origin are reported to have three important characteristics. Ball lightning differs from soap bubbles in electric properties and in their greater shell strength and sizes. Movement of the ball would arise from changes in its charge or changes in the cloud-to-ground field. The ball luminosity would result from internal coronal discharges between the parts of the space charge distribution, from molecular recombination, and perhaps from combustion. The general view that the appearance of ball lightning is usually associated with thunderstorm activity implies that the energy source of ball lightning somehow goes back to the electrostatic energy stored in thunderclouds.
