Manual control of lightning is no longer a myth

Scientists at the French National Advanced Technical School for the first time used laser technology to trigger and control the transfer of lightning. Although this is not the secret weapon of Zeus, at least this technology is not completely part of the mythological plot.

In the 1990s, researchers conceived a magical “virtual lightning rod” that used a laser to form a low-resistance channel in the atmosphere. At that time, the research made some progress. A laser can produce megawatt-scale energy in femtoseconds, and a femtosecond is equivalent to one-quarter-seconds of a second.

Because powerful lasers can generate intense pulses in an extremely short period of time, it is enough to tear the electrons in the air molecules and ionize the air along the path formed by the laser beam to form a high-intensity area. The field of ultrafast laser science is called light filament. After the laser passes through the air, the filament can maintain the existence of air ionized channels, and the research of this technology has not been able to trigger or directly form lightning in the past.

In 2008, the research team led by scientist André Mysyrowicz of the Applied Optical Laboratory of the National Advanced Science and Technology School (ENSTA ParisTech) in Paris, France, used a trailer-sized laser emitting device in New Mexico. As a result of the cloud test, it was found that the laser-induced air plasma channel region of the plasma channel enhances the electron's active ability in the storm clouds but does not trigger lightning. At present, the research team's scientists have achieved two milestone achievements in the practical application of lightning prevention technology by using compact lasers.

At a military laboratory in Toulouse, France, they created a high-voltage lightning bolt and planned to induce lightning to two experimental targets 2.5 meters away. When the laser is turned off, this powerful artificial lightning strikes an experimental target that is closer to the power source, but with the reopening of the high-voltage power source, the filament area in the ionization channel can hit a further experimental target. It means that the laser-induced high voltage discharge directly forms the lightning that hits the target. However, in the second experiment, the research team led by Moshirovich planned to pass the laser beam through an experimental facility spanning 50 meters and set a lightning-generated electrode on the 5 to 20 centimeter channel. An oppositely charged electrode.

In general, the lightning's behavior path is from one electrode to the other, but it is different for laser-induced lightning. When the laser emitting device is turned on, the lightning jumps to the laser light and moves along with the light, all of which occur when the lightning passes through the next electrode. According to Jérôme Kasparian, a University of Geneva researcher based in Switzerland, the significance of this technology is that we can control the behavior of lightning before artificial lightning strikes the experimental electrode. This seems to be the same as what happens in the real world.

In the cloud layer that can produce lightning, there are actually no artificially set electrodes. Often these electrodes will be located far from the lightning, that is, the target position that is potentially hit by lightning is far away. If we can further control the lightning, Pre-target actions can avoid lightning strikes. Moshirovich’s research team is using lasers for more field trials. Kasparian believes that the success of this technology will require a more powerful laser, and the resulting pulsed beam will induce lightning across the sky.

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