Water Aerosol in an Artificial Analogue of Natural Ball Lightning

This article is dedicated to the study of a brightly glowing spherical formation called a plasmoid , which occurs with a special type of pulsed electric discharge above the water surface. The lifespan of a luminous ball is quite long; therefore, it is considered as an analogue of ball lightning, the nature of which has not yet received an exhaustive scientific explanation. An attempt is made to find out whether or not an aerosol is present in a plasmoid and what its chemical and dispersed compositions are. It is shown that when a laser beam passes through a plasmoid, the scattering of laser radiation on aerosol particles of different sizes is clearly observed. It has been established that the interior of a plasmoid is filled with an aqueous aerosol, which includes two fractions: one of them consists of particles of the submillimeter range, while the other contains a medium-dispersed aerosol. The total volume of the particles is estimated at several cubic centimeters. Hopefully, the results obtained will make it possible to advance in understanding the processes occurring during the formation of not only plasmoids but also natural ball lightning.