Ball lightning explained as a stable plasma toroid

Summary form only given, as follows. Describes spinning plasma toroids that are created using high power electric arcs similar to lightning bolts. The spinning toroids are observed to be stable in atmosphere with no confining magnetic fields. Spinning toroids have the appearance of spheres, or balls, and create bright light through collisions with neutrals in the atmosphere. The spinning toroids are observed to last for more than 200 milliseconds in partial atmosphere. The paper describes the initiation apparatus and parameters. An explanation for the plasma toroid is presented that it is a hollow toroid of electrons where all the electrons travel in parallel paths orthogonal to the toroid circumference and reside in a thin outer shell of the toroid. The electron motion creates a current in the surface that in turn creates an internal magnetic field. Equations are presented detailing the initiation of the plasma toroid, and detailing the plasma toroid itself. The stability condition for the plasma toroid has been identified that explains how the plasma toroid remains stable in atmosphere. The observations of the plasma toroids match computer simulations of spinning toroids with constant luminosity. The spinning plasma toroid has the appearance of ball lightning in observations and in computer simulations. The plasma toroid explains how a plasma ring can be stable in atmosphere with no external magnetic fields, and how it can contain many electrons with high energy. Ball lightning is often reported as a ring current, in toroid shape, and since a spinning ring appears as a sphere or ball, the spinning plasma toroid provides an explanation for ball lightning. The technology of the stable plasma toroid has potential for new applications in propulsion, energy generation, and energy storage.