Does oxidizing silicon vapor from struck soil explain ball lightning?
In plain words
One idea is that lightning boils silicon out of soil and the floating silicon dust then slowly burns. This predicts specific light colors and lifetimes that can be checked.
Precise statement
In the silicon-vapor model, a ground strike reduces $\mathrm{SiO_2}$ to Si vapor that condenses into nanoparticle networks which oxidize slowly. Determine whether this model, with realistic soil composition and lightning energy deposition, reproduces observed lifetimes of seconds, sizes near 20 cm, buoyancy and Si, Fe, Ca line strengths. An answer is a quantitative comparison yielding consistency or exclusion.
What would settle it
Controlled discharges into silicon-bearing soils with spectroscopy and lifetime measurement compared with the natural spectrum recorded in 2012 (published 2014).
Parent problems
- Special case of What is ball lightning? · open · from revision 1
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