Experimental conditions for ball lightning creation by using air gap discharge embedded in a microwave field

Abstract

An experiment was carried out to reproduce ball lightning by using microwave radiation and electric discharge without a metal cavity. When the energy of the discharge was high, a plasma fireball was produced. When high-power microwave existed, a plasma fireball was produced even if the power of the discharge was low. We must pay more attention to places where high-power electromagnetic waves exist to see ball lightning. Copyright 2001 by the American Geophysical Union.