Lutz Jaitner , Germany : The Physics of Condensed Plasmoids and LENR

I recommend this paper (apologies if you have already seen it) a declassified USAF study by Eric W Davis in 2003. He performed a major search embracing all of these phenomena, the hypotheses associated with them, methods of generation employed and structural/EM possibilities and differences. There is also (right at the end after some blank pages) a formidable list of references.

https://documents2.theblackvault.com/documents/usaf/AFRL_2002-0039_Ball_Lightning_Study.pdf

This study was tasked with the purpose of conducting a major literature review of the ball lightning phenomenon to explore the observations, experimental tests, and theories. The best ideas and tests were segregated for further analysis and are summarised in this report. A combined bibliography of references was assembled and is presented. The focus of this study was to review and analyze the axially symmetric force-free time-harmonic plasmoid model developed by Nachamkin (1992) for a previous Air Force Research Laboratory study. The intent of the Nachamkin model was to bring together a unique blend of properties proposed by investigators exploring the genre of microwave plasmoid resonance ball lightning models. The main goal of this study is to evaluate and propose experiments to demonstrate the generation of axially symmetric force-free plasmoid ball lightning in the laboratory. Two key experiments were identified and discussed in the report with enough detail to form the basis of future research proposals. An investigation was also conducted into additional promising theories and experiments that might lead to generating ball lightning plasmoids in the lab. Three alternative ball lightning concepts similar to axially symmetric force-free time-harmonic plasmoids were identified and evaluated for their experimental potential, and are described in the report in detail as proposed experiments. The first new concept is the atmospheric maser caviton, the second concept is based on electromagnetic vortex plasmoids generated by micro-discharge devices and sustained by quantum vacuum energy, and the third concept is a -------------- ----------- weapon program the Air Force funded in the 1950s-60s. 15. SUBJECT TERMS ball lightning; Nachamkin model; microwave; plasmoid resona

My own rather reductionist hypothesis is similar to many. An EVO is a dense electron cloud formed into a toroidal current loop -possibly a Clifford torus - with some entrained ions which may help it to remain stable. That a plasmoid is an ion-cloud contained within a loosely woven mesh bag of EVO tori knitted into strings (EVO strings have been observed), and that BL is a more electron-dense version of a plasmoid which contains additional internally distributed EVOs .

This idea at least does away with a need for more than one structural unit.. As for the impossibility of all this, if Cooper-pairs are possible, even demanded, why not more massive structures hewn from the same clay?

One of the (very many) problems with Ball Lightning research is that there are so many different observations, with different characteristics, that it becomes too easy to "cherry pick" the accounts that best support anyone's favourite hypothesis as to what BL may be.

I've actually been trying to suspend the urge to speculate on the nature of what is inside the "glowing ball thing" itself, as I only find that it unduly influences which accounts I find more "convincing", leading to the very real danger of missing some vital feature.

One of my favourite papers, of recent years, is: An Initiation of Ball Lightning in an Aircraft by Wilfried Heil and Don Smith. Journal of Atmospheric and Solar-Terrestrial Physics, November 2021. (It is open access)

There are some interesting features in this account, but I fear the authors are still favouring some aspects and ignoring others...

I knew somebody who was scarred by a ball-lightning encounter in her own home. Strannger things happen to ordinary people.

There is no more Cartesian than my mother, even at 91 years old.

However, she told me often that as a child, had an encounter with a ball during a storm near her and stable enough, so that the duration of time was perceptible to her even in her child's brain.

Quote from Alan Smith

I knew somebody who was scarred by a ball-lightning encounter in her own home. Strannger things happen to ordinary people.

This new video from the Electric Universe guys is not altogether unconnected...

I have seen an estimate in one book on the subject that around 5% of the population have witnessed ball lightning at least once. At an average of one in twenty, most of us will know someone who has seen it - even if we haven't seen it ourselves (as I haven't).

I first became interested in the subject as a kid, as my father told me about an encounter he had with ball lightning when he was a child himself, in 1930s Manchester. It seems he and a bunch of friends were taking shelter in an abandoned church, during a thunderstorm - when a ball of light appeared some feet above them, quickly travelled the length of the church (still at the same height), and silently "exploded" when it hit the back wall.

Also, my ex-wife once witnessed a slow moving ball of light, while on holiday in Austria, in the early 80s. It was during the summer, early evening, above a tourist village in the mountains - and there was no thunderstorm. In fact the sky was quite clear. Lots of people watched it, as it moved slowly above a popular beer garden. And then it just vanished. It scared the crap out of her, but everyone else seemed to just shrug their shoulders and go back to chatting with their friends about anything other than what they had just seen...