Possible Ball Lightning in AIRCAT catalog and associated problems

di
Marco Orlandi  ORLANDI@astbo3.bo.astro.it

Bologna, 15/09/1999

Ball lightning, a natural phenomenon that has not yet been fully studied and understood by science, is an important explanatory cause for many UFO sightings. This makes it vital for researchers involved in the study of abnormal aerial phenomena and for scientists to enhance their knowledge about ball lightning. This study attempts to focus on the difficulty of identifying ball lightning as the stimulus for a UFO sighting, with particular reference to observations made from aeroplanes or in some way involving aeroplanes. Attention is also given to the evolution of such sightings over the years, assessing whether they have effectively decreased since the end of World War II and the 'Golden Age' of foo-fighters, as some authors suggest, or if instead this is a false impression due to the greater emphasis with which specialized sources tend to present sightings of a more markedly 'exotic' nature. It is precisely from this viewpoint that an examination is made of the distorted way in which ufology books and magazines have often presented sightings of ball lightning to the public.