On the possibility of making natural ball lightning using a new pulse discharge type in the laboratory

A new type of electrical discharge was discovered in Gatchina, which produces long-lived luminous formations with the same unique physical properties as natural ball lightning. This paper reviews the research work on the Gatchina discharge that has been done by a number of independent groups and which has provided important insights into the nature of both the discharge and ball lightning formation processes. However, the luminous formations that appeared in the experiments by these groups have a shorter lifetime than objects created by the authors of the proposed method and fail to exhibit some of the specific properties of ball lightning. In this paper, the basic parameters and operation regimes of a facility for creating such formations are discussed; their optimization will eliminate these drawbacks. The review discusses the properties of both the discharge and the luminous objects formed in it, which were observed by the present authors and which other groups failed to reproduce. A model of natural ball lightning is proposed, in the framework of which the peculiar properties of the Gatchina discharge and of the long-lived luminous formations observed in it are explained. The experimental facility developed exhibits a number of features that allow the near-100%-effective production of long-lived luminous formations, thus enabling their physical characteristics to be studied, in principle, on a systematic basis.