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Researchers have succeeded for the first time in directing lightning using a laser beam. The technology should protect against storms in the future.
Storms are fascinating for some and frightening for others, but they are part of the weather. Using satellite data, researchers have estimated the global total flash rate at 40 to 120 flashes per second. Every year more than 4000 people die as a result, and they will Damages in the billions caused, according to their study.
Scientists are therefore working on better ones protection methods. Such attempts have so far failed. A team of researchers is now showing that lasers can direct lightning in a desired direction. This could be used to protect airports, launch pads and large infrastructure facilities from storms in the future. The results of the study were published in the journal “Nature Photonics”.
Storm Protection: Laser can act as a lightning arrestor
In the study, the researchers describe the use of a laser beam, fired from the top of a Swiss mountain, capable of directing a bolt of lightning more than 50 meters. Theoretically they could Technology can even be used to trigger flashes in the first place, explained Aurélien Houard’s team from the Laboratoire d’Optique Appliquée in Palaiseau near Paris. This makes it possible to protect important facilities from storms by igniting lightning at a selected time.
On lightning is a discharge of static electricity built up in thunderclouds or between clouds and the ground. The laser beam creates a plasma in which charged ions and electrons heat the air. The air becomes “partially conductive and therefore a preferred path for lightning,” explains Houard, the study’s lead author.
Lasers as lightning conductors: Not the first research attempt
As early as 1974 it was suggested laser beams to be used for weather protection. The use of lasers to guide lightning was demonstrated in the laboratory at the end of the 1990s. However, outdoor attempts failed in 2004 in the US state of New Mexico and in 2011 in Singapore.
The best protection so far was therefore offered by the franklin staff, a simple lightning rod invented by US polymath Benjamin Franklin in 1749. A team of scientists from six research institutes has been working for years to use the same idea but replace the simple metal rod with a laser beam.
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Storm protection: That’s why the research was successful this time
The researchers attribute the success of the experiments on Mount Säntis to the fact that the Laser Pulse Repetition Rate was two orders of magnitude higher than in previous experiments. The laser used emitted light with a wavelength of about one micron (thousandths of a millimeter) and a repetition rate of 1000 Hertz.
The researchers also benefited from the fact that the tower on the Säntis has been repeatedly used for measurements was used on lightning. “This tower, which is struck by lightning about 100 times a year, is equipped with several sensors that record the lightning current, electromagnetic fields at different distances, X-rays and sources of radiation from the lightning discharges,” the researchers write. They installed more measuring devices and two high-speed cameras that recorded lightning strikes at up to 24,000 frames per second.
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“The results of the Säntis test campaign in summer 2021 provide circumstantial evidence that filaments formed by short and intense laser pulses can conduct lightning discharges over considerable distances,” the researchers conclude. They hope the technique can be used to protect against deadly lightning. However, the preliminary results should be through further test series be confirmed with new configurations. also read: Thunderstorm approaching? This bill can save lives (she/AFP/dpa)
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