Toward a theory of ball lightning occurring in houses and aircraft

Gas discharge properties have been calculated, considering electrons, negative ions, positive ions and the metastable singlet delta oxygen molecules, to assess the possibility of ball lightning resulting from an electrical discharge. It is found that if the metastable molecules have very large densities of the order of 1017 cm−3, a stable ball-like plasma of electrons, positive ions, negative ions and metastable molecules is obtained, with electron densities of ~1011 cm−3. The ball can exist independent of the electrodes. There is an equilibrium within the ball between the detachment of electrons from negative ions by the metastables and the re-attachment of electrons to oxygen atoms reforming negative ions. As the ball is highly conducting, electric fields within the ball are very low. Such a high density of metastable molecules could be accumulated from corona pulses from a high voltage point within any structure such as a house or aircraft fuselage. Large electric fields would be present at the tips of such metal conductors within an ambient electric field existing during a thunderstorm. It is also calculated that significant electric fields exist at the edges of the plasma ball to match the ball potential with the ambient potential and that these fields can be sufficient to excite further metastable molecules and increase the ball lifetime.