It may sound like something out of a sci-fi movie, but scientists are working on an ultra-precise laser attraction beam system to change the path and direction of lightning.
There is also a very practical reason for this: Lightning strikes are the main natural cause of forest fires, so a lightning conduit system can save lives, conserve wildlife and protect vast areas of vital ecosystems.
“We can envision a future in which this technology can attract electrical discharge from passing lightning, guiding it towards safe targets, thereby reducing the risk of catastrophic fires,” says physicist Vladlen Shvedov of the Australian National University.
The system uses a laser beam that mirrors the same process that lightning uses, creating a path and a specific target for an electrical discharge.
To put it simply, lightning is simply an electrical current bridging the gap between a positively charged point on the ground and a negatively charged point at the base of a thundercloud (created by the intense activity of frozen raindrops).
The laser beam proposed by the researchers sets the point for the release of such an electrical discharge; in their experiments, they used graphene microparticles as a charge mediator.
'We propose and demonstrate an effective approach for initiating, trapping and directing electrical discharges in air. It uses a low-power, continuous wave vortex beam that captures and transports light-absorbing particles in the air, ”the study said.
Of course, researchers have not yet tested such an air heating system with real lightning lasers in the wild, but smaller-scale results from the lab suggest that electrical discharges such as lightning can be accurately controlled.
“The experiment simulated atmospheric conditions similar to those observed with real lightning,” says Shvedov.
This technology works over long distances and requires only a low-power laser, making the system affordable, accurate and easy to assemble. The intensity of the laser used here is about a thousand times less than in previous studies.
In addition to lightning, the same careful control of electrical discharge can also be used in manufacturing and medicine – for example, to remove cancerous tissue without invasive surgery.
The research is published in Nature Communications.
Sources: Photo: (Felix Mittermeier / Unsplash)
