Scientists have started steering lightning with lasers – here’s how

The Conversation ^ | January 20, 2023

[lee martell]

Don’t try this at home!

[TheDon]

Ben: "Interesting."

[DannyTN]

How long before we have an effective weapon?

[babygene]

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.

[DannyTN]

[I-ambush]

Great Zeus!!

[ProtectOurFreedom]

The company I worked for created a national lightning center in Florida to test what happens to utility equipment when it gets hit by lightening. The center launched rockets trailing copper wire and frequently got Thor to hit it.

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.

[ComputerGuy]

I can steer my cat with a laser.

[ProtectOurFreedom]

You get nice, BBQ’d toad ribs.

[TangoLimaSierra]

Wow, I’m done trying to blind pilots. Could be dangerous.

[Boogieman]

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.

[dinodino]

Very interesting, actually.

[packagingguy]

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.

[sauropod]

.

[taxcontrol]

Turn this into a “pulse” laser. Laser pulses to ionize the path, high energy electrical discharge to fry the target.

[clearcarbon]

"The results from the study found the lightning flowed almost in a straight line near the laser pulses"

I wonder if a capacitor could be fabricated to hold that kind of charge or even a fraction of it?

[willyd]

you would be the target in that scenario as the lightning follows the path of the laser to its source.

[willyd]

Unless it was from altitude.

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks BenLurkin.

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