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JOURNAL OF GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH, VOL. 99, NO. D5, PAGES 10,679–10,681, 1994

Laboratory-produced ball lightning

Robert K. Golka Jr.

Golka Associates, Brockton, Massachusetts


Abstract

For 25 years I have actively been searching for the true nature of ball lightning and attempting to reproduce it at will in the laboratory. As one might expect, many unidentified lights in the atmosphere have been called ball lightning, including Texas Maffa lights (automobile headlights), flying saucers (UFOs), swamp gas in Ann Arbor, Michigan, etc. For 15 years I thought ball lightning was strictly a high-voltage phenomenon. It was not until 1984 when I was short-circuiting the electrical output of a diesel electric railroad locomotive that I realized that the phenomenon was related more to a high current. Although I am hoping for some other types of ball lightning to emerge such as strictly electrostatic-electromagnetic manifestations, I have been unlucky in finding laboratory provable evidence. Cavity-formed plasmodes can be made by putting a 2-inch burning candle in a home kitchen microwave oven. The plasmodes float around for as long as the microwave energy is present.

Received 7 March 1993; accepted 17 December 1993.

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Citation: Golka, R. K., Jr. (1994), Laboratory-produced ball lightning, J. Geophys. Res., 99(D5), 10,679–10,681.