LAUSR

Abstract Earlier in numerous publications, we showed that ball lightning is mainly an optical phenomenon. This is a symbiosis of two elements: light and air. Intense light circulates in a thin spherical layer of highly compressed air and compresses this air, since the total energy of light and compressed air is minimal in this case. In turn, the thin layer of highly compressed air has an increased refractive index and can be considered as a planar thin-film lightguide, the curvature of which is nonzero in two mutually perpendicular directions. The intensity of the circulating light in a spherical waveguide increases by 109 times compared with the intensity of the same light that propagates rectilinearly. As a result, the forces arising at an interaction between light and the optical medium increase 109 times and exceed other types of forces. It is these forces that determine the anomalous properties and the mysterious behavior of ball lightning in the earth's atmosphere. In numerous publications, we have explained almost all the puzzles in the behavior of ball lightning. Therefore, there is no reason to doubt that the optical nature of ball lightning is true. In this article, we list those phenomena that are responsible for the existence and abnormal behavior of circulating light.