DEVELOPMENT OF THE MASER-CAVITON BALL-LIGHTNING THEORY

The maser-caviton ball lightning theory is briefly described, is compared with the available observations of ball lightning, and is further developed on the basis of the rate equations governing the evolution of the photon number in a single-mode maser. The focus of this paper is on the explosive growth of the photon number at the premature demise of a large atmospheric maser. Ball lightning is a localized high-field soliton forming a cavity surrounded by plasma in this theory. The source of VHF energy is a large atmospheric maser occupying a volume of several cubic miles for the case of open air ball lightning, and occupying the volume of the room in electrically shielded confined ball lightning cases. The main, well-known features of ball lightning, including its appearance right after a strong electric field pulse usually caused by lightning, iu passage through closed windows and other dielectrics, its always harmless existence in electrically shielded (e.g., metallic) enclosures, without the possibility of electrostatic-explosive demise, its total absence in the vicinity of high peaks or lightning observation stations, as well as the resonant character of its positioning and motion with respect to conducting bodies, and its apparent lack of buoyancy in the air can all be explained consistently only with the help of this theory as far as we can see. The explosive demise of open air ball lightning is described here in terms of maser spiking phenomena with the help of elementary equations.