Posted on 01/25/2023 11:32:29 AM PST by BenLurkin
This latest experiment was performed near a telecommunications tower on the Säntis mountain in Switzerland that is frequently struck by lightning - roughly 100 times a year, although the tower itself is protected by a lightning rod.
The results from the study found the lightning flowed almost in a straight line near the laser pulses, but the lightning strikes were more randomly distributed when the laser was off.
While this study is not the first attempt to direct lightning paths it is the first to show it can be done. The scientists have attributed this to the high power laser they used, and the high altitude. At high altitudes air is less dense. This makes it easier for current to pass through, meaning that future experiments at sea level would require a more powerful laser.
Many researchers think some lightning storms could be caused by cosmic rays (highly energetic particles from outside the solar system). These particles pass through the atmosphere and interact with air to create an ionised path through their direction of travel. This is a theory that has researchers split on whether it affects the number of total lightning strikes around the world.
The scientists used a powerful laser to try and create ionised paths in a similar way to the cosmic ray theory. Firing rapid (1,000 times a second) energetic pulses with a laser heats the air and ionises it, briefly becoming conductive. The lightning strike will have less resistance along this path and so will be more inclined to flow that way.
(Excerpt) Read more at theconversation.com ...
Don’t try this at home!
How long before we have an effective weapon?
I’ve thought of this before, however what about aircraft that might be flying above the storm? seems like it might be troublesome... My thoughts were to take out trees that restricted my view.
Great Zeus!!
Of course, this was in the old days when utilities worried about keeping the lights on all the time and not keeping Gaia and her Cronies happy.
I can steer my cat with a laser.
You get nice, BBQ’d toad ribs.
Wow, I’m done trying to blind pilots. Could be dangerous.
Yeah, ol’ Ben figured out how to create a new path of least resistance for lightning, without having to pump 1.21 gigawatts into a laser to accomplish it.
But I guess that’s old hat.
Very interesting, actually.
The Canadians were doing this decades ago. It’s nothing new.
One of the environmental concerns is if this is done most everywhere a big source of our atmospheric ozone is gone.
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Turn this into a “pulse” laser. Laser pulses to ionize the path, high energy electrical discharge to fry the target.
you would be the target in that scenario as the lightning follows the path of the laser to its source.
Unless it was from altitude.
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