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Laser Triggers Electrical Activity In Thunderstorm
esocid writes "A team of European scientists has deliberately triggered electrical activity in thunderclouds for the first time by aiming high-power pulses of laser light into a thunderstorm. At the top of South Baldy Peak in New Mexico during two passing thunderstorms, the researchers used laser pulses to create plasma filaments that could conduct electricity. No air-to-ground lightning was triggered because the filaments were too short-lived, but the laser pulses generated discharges in the thunderclouds themselves up to several meters long. Triggering lightning strikes is an important tool for basic and applied research because it enables researchers to study the mechanisms underlying lightning strikes. Moreover, triggered lightning strikes will allow engineers to evaluate and test the lightning-sensitivity of airplanes and critical infrastructure such as power lines. Research into laser-triggered lightning has been going on for some years. Until now, no experiment was able to produce a long enough plasma channel to affect the electrical activity inside clouds."
...to shooting a laser at a big storm cloud trying to generate lightning. None whatsoever.
All's true that is mistrusted
Sometimes I think these discoveries aren't the result of due scientific process. Sometimes I think a bunch of researchers were sitting around a break room table and said, "Let's shoot lasers at clouds!" Shooting anything with a laser to see what happens is a noble scientific endeavor.
How did they get the sharks with the friggin' laser beams into the clouds?
today is spelling optional day.
Sorry, I think the Greeks were doing that with Zeus. You're a few thousand years late.
Just don't cross the beams.
Don't forget supervilliany.
Sounds like there could be a Darwin Award in this.
A bunch of basement dwellers will rush outside with their mini laser lights to either get zapped by lightning or busted by the police for being terrorists when a plane flies overhead. Their sacrifices for science will be greatly appreciated by the community.
It's part of one of Baldrick's cunning plans. Clouds are made of water, right? And sharks swim in water. So if you kitted up the sharks with lasers...
It's a small world and it smells funny; I'd buy another if it wasn't for the money; Take back what I paid (SoM)
you know, somehow i think it would be more effective just aiming the damn high-power laser at your target.. but maybe that's just me.
...I'm the only one!
Wait, let me read that headline again...
What if I do the same thing, and I do get different results?
I was hanging a clock in the bathroom while standing on the edge of the toilet when I slipped, fell and hit my head on the sink. Then I came up with this:
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1. Set up giant skyward-pointing laser.
2. Connect to mad-scientist-style lightning rod.
3. Wait for thunderstorm.
4. Profit!!!
We use the lightning to drive the laser, and syphon off the excess energy into big batteries. The process is self-sustaining until the storm runs out of juice, when it ends naturally. Free electricity for us and no lightning damage to the surrounding area 'cause we're sucking down all the bolts ourselves. It's win-win!
(of course, now all the America-hating greenies will come out of the woodwork, claiming that we're exploiting the world's natural lightning resources, and warning of grave consequences once we reach "peak storm" or other such nonsense)
Repton.
They say that only an experienced wizard can do the tengu shuffle.
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Pants?
Is that really you?
There's plenty of thunder around Harare this time of year :o)
Please stand under this tree.
One swallow does not a fellatrix make