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Lightning is an amazing natural phenomenon. powerful and life-threatening
Technology we use to protect against lightning One of nature’s deadliest phenomena hasn’t changed much over the past 270 years, but a team of European scientists believes they have successfully deviated a storm in Switzerland using a laser beam
Lightning is an amazing natural phenomenon. powerful And it can be fatal. Research in 2019 estimated that 24,000 people die from lightning each year worldwide.
According to the Insurance Information Institute, in 2020, lightning has damaged homes and businesses in the United States. only one country to 2 billion US dollars
The fact that lightning protection technology has remained relatively unchanged since Benjamin Franklin’s invention of the lightning rod in 1752 has diminished hopes of reducing the number of deaths from lightning.
But recently, a team of European scientists has shown that there may be a way to deflect lightning trajectories using lasers.
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Lightning protection technology has hardly changed since the 18th century.
Laser yaw
The experiment was done by installing a device called a Laser Lightning Rod (LLR) on a mountain peak in Switzerland. which is a point where lightning is often struck As a result, this device was able to divert the direction of a lightning bolt several tens of meters away.
Since 2021, a research team led by the University of Geneva and École Polytechnique Polytechnic College in Paris Four successful experiments with the LLR have been performed so far, but the study was just published this month in the journal Nature Photonics.
Lightning rods in use today are metal poles that are connected to the ground to absorb and dissipate the electric charge that strikes them. But the limitation of this device is that it can protect against lightning hazards only in the area within the same radius as the height of the device tower.
Dr Aurelian Huard, physicist at École Polytechnique One of the scientists on this project Explaining to the BBC that “This means that a 10 meter high pole will provide lightning protection for an area within a 10 meter radius.”
Dr Huard pointed out that the current use of lightning rods still has limitations. especially for important places and require high security such as airports or nuclear power plants
However, LLR devices can shoot laser beams higher than traditional lightning rods. This, in theory, means that it will protect against a much wider range of lightning strikes.
“I expect that using a large laser beam could potentially protect an area of hundreds of square meters, or one square kilometer,” said Dr Huard.
image source, UNIGE
The laser beam from the LLR device deflected the lightning trajectory up to 60 meters away from a mountaintop tower in Switzerland.
uses air as a conductor of electricity
In the past, high-intensity laser beams were used to cut various materials. “Virtual Lightning Rod” by making the air conductive.
Dr Huard explains, “The powerful laser emits intense light that causes the oxygen and nitrogen molecules in the air to become electrically charged atoms. which makes the air become a conductor of electricity”
In this study A team of scientists chose the 2,500-meter Mount Santis in Switzerland as the site to test the LLR device.
image source, UNIGE
The laser light causes molecules in the air to heat up and become conductive.
The peak is also home to a telecommunications company tower equipped with lightning rods. It is the most struck by lightning in Europe.
Between June and September 2021, a team of scientists used high-speed cameras to collect lightning data at the tower.
After analyzing the data for a year, they found that the laser beam from the LLR device deflected the lightning trajectory up to 60 meters away from the tower.
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Benjamin Franklin invented the lightning rod system in 1752 and is still used today.
However, more performance testing of LLR devices will be required before they can be used as replacements for current lightning rods. for example Researchers will have to study whether lasers can be used to deflect lightning trajectories at greater distances.
If it is found that this laser technology can be used effectively. It will be extremely useful to people around the world. Because many studies indicate that Climate change will cause more lightning around the world. Therefore, new technologies to help prevent lightning strikes are essential.