© Youtube/Joanne Steen (screen capture)
A video appearing to show a strange light above Canberra during a storm was
probably capturing "ball lightning", an astronomer has said.
The
video uploaded to YouTube last night, claims to show a circle or donut-shaped light appearing in the Canberra sky during a storm.
Australian National University astronomer Brad Tucker said the red and green light which glowed faintly in the background was "characteristic of an aurora" however believed this time it was ball lightning.
"An aurora is when energy from the sun hits the earth's atmosphere, the energy rubs the earth's atmosphere with friction and charges the gas," he said.
"But the problem is there was no activity from the sun, it was cloudy, we can't see the aurora, so it doesn't really fit."
Dr Tucker said in this case, the energy to create an aurora probably came from the thunderstorm itself.
"The same activity that causes an aurora, can actually happen inside our atmosphere if you have a storm with
a lot of electrical charge that is rubbing against the gases in our atmosphere, causing it to grow that green or red colour," he said.
"Sometimes, if you get a really interesting occurrence, you create something called 'ball lightning'.
"Normally lightning strikes up and down hitting the ground,
but ball lightning is a weird thing where it appears as a ball explosion, sometimes it can even move around in the sky."
Comment: Electric universe theory provides rational, intelligible explanations for such atmospheric phenomena as ball lightning, plasma discharges, noctilucent clouds, lightning, hurricanes and tornadoes. For more information on this and much more read,
Earth Changes and the Human-Cosmic Connection by Pierre Lescaudron and Laura Knight-Jadczyk.
Comment: Violent and freak hailstorms are being increasingly reported from around the world. A selection from the past few months include: