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Researchers propose new theory of how ball lightning is created and why it occurs where it does
Small, grapefruit-sized balls of intensely glowing light, hovering or moving silently through the air, ball lightning lasts from a few seconds to a few minutes. They are extremely rare, less than 5% of the population have seen the phenomenon – occasionally reported, but never photographed. Now researchers from Australia’s Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO) are publishing a mathematical theory in the Journal of Geophysical Research Atmospheres that they think explains how ball lightning is formed and why it tends to form where it does.