Ball Lightning

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xiv

   PDF

2. Introduction

   • Herbert Boerner

   Pages 1-2

3. Ball Lightning: Observers’ Tales

   • Herbert Boerner

   Pages 3-8

4. The Search for Photographic Evidence

   • Herbert Boerner

   Pages 9-19

5. A Bit of Philosophy, or What Has a Razor to Do with Ball Lightning?

   • Herbert Boerner

   Pages 21-28

6. Organizing and Analyzing the Observations

   • Herbert Boerner

   Pages 29-49

7. Electrical Discharges, Coronas, and Streamers

   • Herbert Boerner

   Pages 51-56

8. Thunderstorms and Lightning

   • Herbert Boerner

   Pages 57-81

9. BL: Well Documented Cases of Copious Production

   • Herbert Boerner

   Pages 83-93

10. The Link Between Lightning Physics and Ball Lightning

    • Herbert Boerner

    Pages 95-98

11. Some People Just Won’t Believe It: The Skeptic’s View

    • Herbert Boerner

    Pages 99-108

12. Ball Lightning Theories

    • Herbert Boerner

    Pages 109-126

13. BL Experiments

    • Herbert Boerner

    Pages 127-149

14. Wrapping It All Up

    • Herbert Boerner

    Pages 151-154

15. Back Matter

    Pages 155-205

    PDF

Ball lightning is an enigma. These luminous objects that appear occasionally during thunderstorms and can reach several meters in diameter have been a mystery to science for about 200 years. Despite several thousands of reported observations, their nature is still unknown. In this book, well documented cases of ball lightning are described and used to unravel some aspects of this mysterious form of atmospheric electricity. Throughout the book, the author discusses the various facets of the problem in an accessible but rigorous style, delivering a readable and informative text that will captivate the curious reader. He finally reaches the surprising conclusion that the solution to this puzzle may have been hidden in plain sight for many years. 

A foreword by Earle Williams, leading lightning researcher at MIT, introduces the book.

• Lightning physics
• Positive lightning
• Superbolts
• Lightning location systems
• Citizen science
• Occam's razor

“This very readable and informative work is well constructed … . At the end of each chapter Boerner gives a bullet-point summary of all the important points discussed in that chapter; this I found invaluable. … Anyone with a background in physics and mathematics will easily be able to follow Boerner’s informative text. I will go as far as saying anyone with a curious mind, even without the background knowledge, will find it difficult to put this book down.” (Graham Denye, Weather, June 8, 2021)

• Mainz, Germany

  Herbert Boerner

Herbert Boerner obtained his PhD for experimental work in High Energy Physics from Bonn University in 1981. After postdoc positions at KEK in Japan and CERN in Geneva he joined Philips research in 1986, first working in the Hamburg laboratory, and from 1995 on in the Aachen laboratory. From this year until his retirement in 2012 he worked on the physics and engineering of organic light emitting diodes (OLED).

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