How to control a lightning strike with a laser
In order to prevent the destruction of machinery and equipment due to lightning strikes and large-scale fires, it is necessary to guide lightning strikes to a safe place.
Lightning rods play some role, but their effectiveness and effectiveness are limited.
Even if there is a lightning rod nearby, it does not necessarily mean that lightning will fall toward the lightning rod.
ThereforeScientists have been studying more effective “laser lightning”.
this isHow to make plasma with a high-intensity laser and turn it into a “lightning path”is.
By applying energy to molecules in the atmosphere with a laser, those molecules are destroyed.
Molecules become atoms, and the electrons around the nucleus separate to form ions.
This ionized state is the state of the fourth substance following “solid / liquid / gas”.plasmaIt has the property that “current is extremely easy to flow”.
Therefore, if you use this property of plasma, you can create a “lightning path” in the atmosphere and guide the generated lightning.
In previous experimentsLaser lightning with artificial lightning was successful, but there were no examples of naturally occurring lightning.
But this time, Wolff and his team have succeeded in inducing natural lightning using a pulsed laser (a laser that blinks at short intervals).
