Journal of Atmospheric Electricity, Vol. 18, No. 1, pp.

47-51, 1998 47

PRODUCTION OF A PLASMA FIREBALL RISING FROM THE WATER SURFACE

M. Kamogawa, H. Ofuruton*, N. Kondo, and Y.H. Ohtsuki

Department of Physics, Waseda University

4-1 Okubo 3, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo, 169, Japan

*Tokyo Metropolitan College of Aeronautical Engineering

52-1 Minamisenju 8, Arakawa-ku, Tokyo, 116, Japan

Abstract. There are a lot of eyewitness reports of ball lightning. According to them, in a
few case ball lightnings came up from the water surface. On the other hand, a plasma
fireball was artificially produced by microwave interference in a metal cavity by Ohtsuki
and Ofuruton ( 1991 ). This experiment reproduced some physical properties similar to
those of ball lightning phenomena in nature. However, reproduction of plasma fireball
rising from the water surface has not been succeeded yet, because the frequency of
microwave which was used in this experiment is 2.45GHz and most of the microwave
power is .absorbed by the water. In this paper, we make a report on production of fireball
rising from the water surface by discharge and microwave interference.

1. Introduction
People have come across ball lightning phenomena all over the world. There are a
lot of eyewitness reports of ball lightning published by many researchers (Barry, 1980;
Ohtsuki, 1987, 1989; Egely, 1988, 1989). These reports have showed many kinds of its
properties. Among them, there are some curious reports of ball lightning coming rise up
from the water surface of the lake when lightning strikes.
Two reports of its eyewitness observations collected by Egely (198 8) are as
follows:
"Lightning struck the surface of the lake. A glowing disk-shape ball lightning was
ascending from where the lightning hit. The center of the glow was about 1 meter in
diameter and the diameter of the ball lightning was about 2 to 3 meters and the edge was
vague. " ( Australia )
"Lightning hit the surface of the lake and then, the orange color ball whose diameter
was 10 to 20 centimeters was rising from the water. It climbed to the height of about 20 to
5 0 centimeter and moved 3 0 meters horizontally. Then it suddenly submerged under water
and there was the sound of explosion and vapor was floating over the surface of the lake.
"(USSR)
On the other hand, theoretical models of ball lightning were proposed by many
researchers. Especially, Kapitza ( 195 5) predicted that ball lightning should be produced
at the region of the highest intensity of radio waves caused by lightning discharge.
This theoretical model motivated our experiment. Ohtsuki and Ofuruton ( 1991)
produced plasma fireballs by microwave interference in natural air. A plasma fireball
could be formed by microwave interference and could exist in the metal cavity during
power supply. The diameter of the plasma fireball was about 3cm, which was determined
by many photographs and video records. And this experiment reproduced a lot of
eyewitness observations of ball lightning such as motion against the wind and the ability
to pass through a ceramic board intact without causing any damage or melting. However,
this experiment could not reproduce a few eyewitness reports of ball lightning rising from
the water surface. Because the frequency of microwave of this magnetron used in the
experiment was 2.45GHz, therefore the most of the power of microwave was absorbed by