• We have updated the guidelines regarding posting political content: please see the stickied thread on Website Issues.

Scientists Redirect Lightning Using Weather-Controlling Super Laser

maximus otter

Recovering policeman
Joined
Aug 9, 2001
Messages
13,848
Scientists in France have created a way to divert lightning strikes using a weather-controlling super laser.

Researchers with the Polytechnic Institute of Paris guided the strikes from thunderclouds to places where they don’t cause damage. The team says the new technique could save power stations, airports, launchpads, and other buildings from disaster.

The system creates a virtual lightning rod, metal conductors that intercept flashes and guide their currents into the ground.

lightning-has-b-946484-scaled.jpg


“The findings extend the current understanding of laser physics in the atmosphere and may aid in the development of novel lightning protection strategies,” says corresponding author Dr. Aurelien Houard.

The idea of using intense laser pulses to guide lightning strikes has been previously explored in laboratory conditions. However, there weren’t any field tests that previously demonstrated lightning guiding by lasers. Dr. Houard and colleagues carried out a series of experiments last summer on the top of Mount Santis in northeastern Switzerland.

In six hours of operation during thunderstorms, they observed the laser diverting the course of four upward lightning discharges from the 400-foot-tall tower. Results were corroborated using high-frequency electromagnetic waves generated by the lightning to locate the strikes.

https://studyfinds.org/redirect-lightning-super-laser/

maximus otter
 
Scientists in France have created a way to divert lightning strikes using a weather-controlling super laser.

Researchers with the Polytechnic Institute of Paris guided the strikes from thunderclouds to places where they don’t cause damage. The team says the new technique could save power stations, airports, launchpads, and other buildings from disaster.

The system creates a virtual lightning rod, metal conductors that intercept flashes and guide their currents into the ground.

lightning-has-b-946484-scaled.jpg


“The findings extend the current understanding of laser physics in the atmosphere and may aid in the development of novel lightning protection strategies,” says corresponding author Dr. Aurelien Houard.

The idea of using intense laser pulses to guide lightning strikes has been previously explored in laboratory conditions. However, there weren’t any field tests that previously demonstrated lightning guiding by lasers. Dr. Houard and colleagues carried out a series of experiments last summer on the top of Mount Santis in northeastern Switzerland.

In six hours of operation during thunderstorms, they observed the laser diverting the course of four upward lightning discharges from the 400-foot-tall tower. Results were corroborated using high-frequency electromagnetic waves generated by the lightning to locate the strikes.

https://studyfinds.org/redirect-lightning-super-laser/

maximus otter
Now they have to get a massive laser into space...
 
So, these lasers still have to be placed where lightning strikes often, correct? So it would not have a widespread utilitarian purpose such as out in fields or golf courses:). It can only be used in very specific places.

I know that I am "dumbing it down", but I like to know that I am understanding it correctly. At first, I thought that it could be used in an area where there are thunderstorms to prevent damage eg, forest fires, but it can't.
 
The device can "grab" lightning within its line of sight.

In theory, if you build enough of them, you could cover any area. However, in practice, energy consumption and construction costs would make such things practical only for large cities or other important structures.
 
Back
Top