Title :
Compact toroidal properties compared to ball lightning
Author_Institution :
EPS Inc., Acton, MA, USA
Abstract :
Summary for only given, as follows. Long duration higher power pulses have been used to create compact toroids. Pulses of 4800 amperes and up to 200 volts have been generated for 150 milliseconds duration. Pressure is held to 0.01 to 0.001 atmosphere. Compact toroids are observed to last for more than 200 milliseconds in atmosphere after all fields are removed. Their diameter is measured to be >1 cm. Increasing the current appears to increase the diameter. An explanation is proposed that the compact toroids are electron spiral toroids (ESTs). The EST is a hollow toroid of electrons where all electrons travel in parallel paths orthogonal to the toroid circumference, and reside in the thin outer shell of the toroid. The proposed EST explanation quantitatively describes the compact toroids. It explains how the EST can be a stable current ring in high atmosphere with no external magnetic fields, and how the EST can contain many electrons with high energy. Ball lightning (BL) is often reported (15% of sightings) as a ring, and since a spinning ring appears as a sphere or ball, the EST is a candidate for the BL explanation. This paper applies the formulas of the EST to the compact toroids and to ball lightning using reported observations.
Keywords :
lightning; plasma properties; plasma toroidal confinement; 0.01 to 0.001 atm; 200 V; 4800 A; ball lightning; compact toroidal properties; electron spiral toroids; external magnetic fields; long duration higher power pulses; toroid circumference; Atmosphere; Computational modeling; Electrons; Frequency; Lightning; Plasma accelerators; Plasma properties; Plasma simulation; Plasma stability; Plasma waves;
Conference_Titel :
Plasma Science, 1997. IEEE Conference Record - Abstracts., 1997 IEEE International Conference on
Conference_Location :
San Diego, CA, USA
Print_ISBN :
0-7803-3990-8
DOI :
10.1109/PLASMA.1997.605182