Electrically Charged Air Bubble as a Current-Supported Mechanism of Ball Lightning Formation

This paper proposes a physically consistent model of ball lightning as a quasistationaryplasma structure sustained by a continuous electric current flowing througha weakly conducting atmospheric channel. The luminous spherical region is interpretedas a glow-discharge-like plasma formed at the termination of this channel in the loweratmospheric layer. Diffusion, recombination, and energy balance considerations demonstratethat the intrinsic electrostatic energy of the structure is insufficient to explainobserved lifetimes. Instead, its persistence is attributed to continuous energy inputfrom atmospheric electric fields. Scaling estimates for current, plasma conductivity,charge density, and power dissipation are presented, showing consistency with knownatmospheric and plasma parameters.