Until the air ionizes it doesn't make any practical difference.
To ionize the air with laser light it take very large energy densities.
To ionize the air with laser light it take very large energy densities.
Yes, but I would think that the 1016W lasers people were talking about might ionize air, which would cause pretty severe attenuation. Smaller lasers aren't going to ionize air, and thus will be attenuated much less.