Atmospheric scientist Steve Ackerman has been fascinated by St. Elmo's fires since the moment his brother encountered them. Ackerman's brother was working on copper pipes in the basement of his house in bad weather. “A thunderstorm came into the area and at one point there was a bluish glow over a lot of the pipes,” says Ackerman. “Then I started looking for what was causing it.”
Thunderclouds create a strong electric field because there is a strong difference in electrical charges between the cloud and the ground, which can sometimes be felt as static electricity. This field can be reinforced with pointed objects, such as a metal pipe or a ship's mast.
If this electric field becomes strong enough, it will break the air molecules into electrically charged particles. These gases will become "plasma" and emit light.
A similar plasma glow can be created in the laboratory by using sharp or elongated objects to amplify the electric field. And yet Ackerman wants to observe the fires of St. Elmo in nature. “I haven’t seen them myself yet, but I keep looking.”