Ball Lightening, an Explanation for UFO Sightings?

There has been an unusual occurrence in the number of UFO’s reported in 2010, one’s that were taken seriously by the media anyway. China, Southern California, New Mexico and New York to name a few of the sites which had even nay sayers wondering what was “up”. It may be a rare occurrence called “ball lightening.” Ball lightning is a phenomena which may be caused by space debris. It is a hallucination caused by magnetic fluctuations during storms.

Even if a cloud is not in the sky. Scientists believe this occurrence may explain the unusual amount of UFO sightings this year, yet to believers that there is something “out there” this conclusion is not decisive. Orbs seen over a cloudless sky in Queensland, Australia were explained by Stephen Hughes and astrophysicist at the Queensland University of Technology in Brisbane. He explained that the two green balls descending from the sky could be explained by the first orb being a bright meteor caused by debris from Comet 73P ( the closest comet near earth in 20 years.)

The second orb was quite possibly ball lightening triggered by the meteor. Hughs said it is possible such connections could create a wide range of strange phenomena and could explain the unexplainable UFO sightings. Cometary debris ionizes the atmospheric gas as it passes through, boosting the current that normally flows between the ionosphere an electrically charged region in the upper atmosphere and the ground. When the conduit hit the soil, it forms a plasma ball, impacting space junk could also produce the effect.

At least three traffic-light green fireballs brighter than the moon but not as bright as the sun blazed over northeast Australia on May 16, 2006. A farmer saw one with a blue tapering tail pass over the mountains of the Great Divide about 75 miles (120 kilometers) west of Brisbane, then watched a phosphorescent green ball about 12 inches wide (30 centimeters) roll slowly down the side of a mountain, bouncing over a rock along the way

Hmm sounds like a cover up for something big.

What do you think about this green fireball?


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Awsome picture, star and flag!


While ball lightning and meteors could account for alot of sightings, unfortunately I don't believe it can cover them all. Some sightning are too complex and there accounts are too lengthy to be covered by such as fast event as lightning or meteors.

i seen ball lightning once..it doesnt look like that ...but i was high on mushrooms and like 16 at the time...me and my friend thought it was a portal.lol.

reply to post by pavelivanov22


We've made something like ball lightning in a lab, but in the field it's still pretty speculative.

Laboratory experiments have produced effects that are visually similar to reports of ball lightning, but it is presently unknown whether these are actually related to any naturally occurring phenomenon. Scientific data on natural ball lightning are scarce owing to its infrequency and unpredictability. The presumption of its existence is based on reported public sightings, and has therefore produced somewhat inconsistent findings. Given inconsistencies and the lack of reliable data, the true nature of ball lightning is still unknown.[3] Until recently, ball lightning was often regarded as a fantasy or a hoax, but some serious scientific discussions and theories have attempted to explain it.

Now that cell phones, video and digital camera are ubiquitous, hopefully someone will catch some decent footage of ball lightning. But I think eyewitness descriptions fall short of anything conclusive, though I don't object to listing ball lightning along with other possibilities for what the eyewitness may have seen.

I haven't seen any conclusive evidence that ball lightning really exists but I'm very open minded to the possibility. We just need better evidence than verbal descriptions from people about what they saw.

Originally posted by v1rtu0s0
While ball lightning and meteors could account for alot of sightings, unfortunately I don't believe it can cover them all.

Nobody has suggested that, have they?

I'm sure you're right, the percentage of sightings due to meteorites and ball lightning is small.

Originally posted by v1rtu0s0
Awsome picture, star and flag!


While ball lightning and meteors could account for alot of sightings, unfortunately I don't believe it can cover them all. Some sightning are too complex and there accounts are too lengthy to be covered by such as fast event as lightning or meteors.

I agree. But stories like this are to dumb people down into thinking it was nothing

Originally posted by FoxBenBen
i seen ball lightning once..it doesnt look like that ...but i was high on mushrooms and like 16 at the time...me and my friend thought it was a portal.lol.

Soon i will be having a experience very similar to yours

i personally am inclined to think that of the sightings that aren't ball lightning or hallucinations or whatever, for those sightings that have objects suddenly change direction or hit high speeds instantaneously or even those where they neutralize nukes, that they are actually probably related to john searl's S.E.G.(Searl Effect Generator) which were always built as discs, with separate bearing-like parts (imagine a bearing, inside a bearing, inside a bearing, ex. ((O)) and that would be the gist of its shape) . if you've ever heard him describe his machine's capabilities, i think a lot of people here would agree with this. mind you, i'm not saying that he's solely responsible for all of these particular sightings, and i imagine that should we ever find a crashed disc with little green dudes in it(humor me), we would probably discover that their ship probably works in a similar fashion as how searl describes his machines.

Originally posted by Arbitrageur


I haven't seen any conclusive evidence that ball lightning really exists but I'm very open minded to the possibility.

Starred you for that one pal....i was thinking the same thing.

How can an anomaly with no definitive evidence be explained away by another anomaly of which there is no definitive evidence?

A video of 'swamp gas' would be fun as well.

He has also his ball lightnings but they are not intelligent as some plasma UFOs:

chukanovenergy.com...

Nevertheless the physical essence must be one and the same. There is something
in the background which cannot be explained by the contemporary physics, even by
his theory although he has some practical results.

I have witnessed "ball lightening" before. It was during an electric storm in Northern Ontario. I was watching a storm sweep over the forests and coming in over the lake I was camping at. I went into the owner's cottage-home because it was looking like something fierce approaching. While we were playing cards I happened to look out the window, and was shocked to see a ball of "plasma" appear before my eyes bouncing around right on the rocks of the beach before the cottage-home (lasted only a couple seconds).
I asked if she put any Bailey's in my coffee, lol, because I could not believe what I saw. But the reason I looked out the window was I saw a HUGE bolt of lightning "sprinkle" overhead (she also has a "sky view" in the ceiling) in my peripherals. It was a very interesting sight.

Later when I came back home I asked my boyfriend about what I saw. I asked because he was a "plasma" cutter (cutting steel with plasma) and he said he has witnessed his machines produce such phenomenons. He pretty much confirmed what I saw. A ball of plasma. Just electrically charged ions reacting to the air (perhaps sudden pressure changes that may occur during severe weather?).

I have posted a video of my own of sightings during a "storm" the lighting stopped for a while and the lights began. Everyone, and I mean everyone was opposed to it due to the lightening not happening at the exact same time, or the weather was :acting: different. I have since decided to stop my search of one of the greatest times of my search's.

Peace, NRE.

Originally posted by Arbitrageur
reply to post by pavelivanov22

 

We've made something like ball lightning in a lab, but in the field it's still pretty speculative.

Laboratory experiments have produced effects that are visually similar to reports of ball lightning, but it is presently unknown whether these are actually related to any naturally occurring phenomenon. Scientific data on natural ball lightning are scarce owing to its infrequency and unpredictability. The presumption of its existence is based on reported public sightings, and has therefore produced somewhat inconsistent findings. Given inconsistencies and the lack of reliable data, the true nature of ball lightning is still unknown.[3] Until recently, ball lightning was often regarded as a fantasy or a hoax, but some serious scientific discussions and theories have attempted to explain it.

I haven't seen any conclusive evidence that ball lightning really exists but I'm very open minded to the possibility. We just need better evidence than verbal descriptions from people about what they saw.

I will have to give credit to Arbitrageur on this one.

The subject of ball lightning is fascinating, and it's even more fascinating how some people throw the concept around.

We have very little if no reliable data on this phenomenon, and the only reason it is not scorned by science in the same way as UFOs or ghosts, is that some renowned scientists have observed it, and some pictures of the phenomenon exists (true, we do have pictures of UFOs too, but...). Science therefore silently accepts the phenomenon, without being able to explain it.

We can create something that remotely resembles ball lightning in laboratories, but without being able to reproduce the intensity, longevity and behavior of reported ball lightning incidents. We can therefore not physically explain how the phenomenon behaves they way it has been reported, and therefore not explain it as a natural phenomenon.

You can therefore not explain certain types of UFOs (orbs, foo fighters, etc) as possible ball lightning, since we cannot explain ball lightning.

An orb is an unidentified flying object, and so is ball lightning.

reply to post by Heliocentric


Thanks, it's nice to see we agree sometimes!

And even when we don't, you're a capable and respected debater!

We still have much to learn in this area. I'm surprised how long it took science to confirm the presence of other atmospheric plasma phenomena, like Sprites, though they are way too high up to be responsible for any of these sightings. But the point is, we are still learning things scientifically about atmospheric plasma.

reply to post by Arbitrageur


Thanks, you do a pretty good job at barking back at me, ha!

I think science should be conservative in what it accepts as studied, proven and understood phenomenon, kind of like it takes the Catholic Church an average of 100 years before accepting to canonize someone (declare a saint).

What outrages me is that when we have something like the UFO phenomenon, which is observed daily all over the planet, with witness accounts, photographs and films to back it up, science sticks its head in the sand and pretends like it does not exist (as a phenomenon), out of embarrassment.
I'm exaggerating somewhat here, because some modest, low-priority and to an extent biased (official) studies have been performed, and some countries - like France - do spend modest funds on collecting data on the phenomenon, but in general that's the case.

As to ball lightning, it is such a rare phenomenon (whatever it is) that you're more likely to catch two pandas having sex than come across one. It's hard to study.

Some interesting ball lightning in this vid.

video.google.com...#

I've looked at several ball lightening video's over the years in an attempt to ID something that I saw ten years ago. None of the video's I've seen look anything like what I saw.

It was a clear night, no clouds in sight, and a beautiful summer night. It was a fairly rural area with no big city lights and the stars were shining brightly. I was right on Lake Erie looking up at the stars when I turned to look up and behind me. I saw a basketball size glowing orb that was about 100 ft above treetop level zoom past me and fly across the lake. When it hit the other side of the lake, it did a sharp U turn and headed straight back towards me. I watched it fly over my head again, and I lost sight of it because of the trees. I stared up in the direction for a few seconds longer and was surprised to see it come back, fly back over my head and zoom across the lake again. This time it didn't do a U turn, but kept going straight. I stayed outside watching for it again, but it didn't come back. The whole episode lasted only about 3 minutes, if that long.

I have yet to see any video of ball lightening that looks similar to what I saw, but I'm still looking.

reply to post by pavelivanov22


Your post made me think of these declassified UK documents on "Unidentified Aerial Phenomenon" at webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk...://www.mod.uk/defenceinternet/freedomofinformation/publicationscheme/searchpublicationscheme/unidentif iedaerialphenomenauapintheukairdefenceregion.htm

There's alot of stuff there which I read at one time but I can't remember all the relevent parts exactly. What I do remember is that the MOD did seem to admit that these 'UAP's were unexplainable by current means and might be some kind of plasma energy. They theorise that this may be why some people report UFOs following cars or planes (something to do with the electrons (whatever, I'm not exactly sure ) needing to discharge into something.

What struck me is that they were quite ambivalent regarding the possible origins of these plasma energies. The way I read it, the UK MOD seemed to be unsure whether these things were just natural occurances, or some kind of intelligently controlled phenomena, although that could be just my interpretation.

In part G, page 3, they present a case for the 'foo fighters' observed in WW2 being plasma energy phenomena. If nothing else, this goes to show that our governments have been trying to work out what these things are just like the rest of us.

Interesting thread. I decided to take a look through my catalogue of South Australian UFO reports to see if there could be any possibly due to ball lightning.

I found the following:

1. 1994 Tailem Bend
A loud whistling noise was heard, and 3-4 seconds later an "electric blue" object passed overhead. Later, a tree on the property was found to have exploded. The event occurred during an electrical storm. Possible ball lightning. (UFORSA94002.)

2. 13 October 1996 Hawthorndene, Adelaide
At 2145hrs local time a loud rumbling noise like thunder was heard. A witness went to her backyard to take a look and saw a glittering or glowing, green light, some 50 metres away and only 10 metres off the ground. The light was initially stationary, and seemed some 30-45cms in diameter. She watched it for a very short time and then called for her brother to come take a look. However, by the time he arrived the light had departed. Total duration 5-6 seconds. (UFORSA.)

Please take a look at the Australian UFO blog at ufos-scientificresearch.blogspot.com...

reply to post by pavelivanov22


Thoughts on this video...ball lightening?