Scientists use lasers the size of cars to transfer lightning strikes

On a mountain top in Switzerland, a laser the size of a car helps guide lightning from the sky to the ground.

Laser lightning rod projects green light beam to the sky

As NASA strives to send its huge next-generation lunar rocket to the launch pad at the beginning of 2022, it has to do so to combat the bad weather in Florida. A storm system full of heavy rain and lightning is moving, threatening the rocket waiting for the launch rehearsal at the launch pad. During the storm, the launch area was hit by lightning four times.

Fortunately, NASA protected the launch pad with its lightning tower, which is a huge metal structure designed to attract lightning and safely transmit electric charges to the ground. Since its invention in the 18th century, the basic design and concept behind the lightning tower have not changed much. But in 2021, scientists in northeastern Switzerland are experimenting with a different type of lightning tower.

3D reconstruction of lightning strike on July 24, 2021

In a study, published in the journal Nature Photonics on Monday, researchers described their attempt to guide lightning with a laser beam at the picturesque summit of Sentis at an altitude of more than 8000 feet.

In the summer of 2021, scientists installed a fast pulse laser about the size of a car next to a telecommunication tower in Centris. From July to September of that year, the picosecond laser, which emits about 1000 pulses per second, worked for more than six hours in thunderstorm activities. During the observation period, the communication tower was hit at least 16 times, 4 of which occurred during the laser activity. (Lightning does strike twice, sometimes more than that.)

A special attack on July 24, 2021 was captured in detail. The sky is clear enough that the high-speed camera can catch lightning, which seems to follow the laser for about 50 meters. The facility also has a very high frequency interferometer, which can measure the electromagnetic wave activity around the site. It is also possible to measure the X-ray of several laser guided strikes.

Lightning is a complex phenomenon caused by the imbalance of positive and negative charges between the storm cloud and the ground. It does not always spread from the clouds to the ground. Usually, lightning also travels upwards. The team found that most lightning strikes in sn tis are upward, which is consistent with most lightning strikes in the region.

As the researchers pointed out in the discussion, in 2004 and 2011, several attempts have been made to guide lightning with laser pulses. These attempts were unsuccessful, so why did the Santis movement go so smoothly?

The research team concluded that the repetition rate of the laser - the speed of the pulse - played a major role. The repetition of this special laser is two orders of magnitude higher than previous experiments, and may allow any lightning precursor developed above the interception tower. Further laser-guided lightning activities will be necessary to fully understand how the giant Frickin 'laser works.

There are about 40 to 120 lightning strikes per second on the earth, and there are considerable areas, infrastructure and human life that need to be protected. There is also a fact that climate change, population growth and larger metropolitan areas will increase the risk of human being being being struck by lightning, according to a 2018 paper in the journal Environmental Research Letters.

However, Zhilang believes that lasers have their own problems. For example, it seems unwise to use lasers around active airports. Researchers pointed out in their methods that they only use this special laser when the airspace is closed.

In the near future, Zhilang believes that this laser lightning rod is a promising opportunity to better protect key infrastructure from lightning strikes.

Source: Degao Xingzhi Lover